A Really Nice Man
by junienmomo
Summary: Here's what happened when Lorelai and Luke picked up on the signals they were exchanging when they selected paint colors for the diner spruce. Encompasses Donna Reed and further in Season 1. Many, many thanks to a creative beta, dreambeliever617, for amazing ideas that really improved the story.
1. Lap Dance

A Really Nice Guy

She moved fast - even faster than usual, which was saying something - through the chilly night. _It was me_, she thought, _it wasn't even him. I did it. How could I just lean into him like that? I did everything but give him a lap dance._ Even that would have been easy; just a couple more swings of her hips and she would have been giving him that lap dance. They were there, together, sharing secrets, and the next thing she knew her hip was right up against his, her thigh leaning against his thigh, which was even more muscular than she had expected, and she could feel the heat of his body through both of their jeans.

"Arrgh! Giving him a lap dance?" She screamed out loud, stamping her foot in frustration. "How is my mother always in my head?"

A subject change was needed. There would be no more talk of lap dances, or steak, or poker games, or secrets. Home. I've got to go home, she told him. No, that was a lie. "I should go," she told him. She was so weak she could only whisper those words. All he would have had to do was say, "Stay," and she would have, because, to be honest, her mother was right. She would have given him a lap dance, because he was so attractive tonight. Maybe not just tonight.

Instead, all he said was "Thank you," like any stranger would utter after getting his change at Doose's Market. Crap. That was another lie. _Nobody_ said thank you like that at the grocery store. Nobody put his head so close to yours in the grocery store, making it easy to smell all the scents that make up a man – his aftershave, his soap, his work, his breath fresh as he uttered two simple words of gratitude.

_Men who could show their soft side were always sexy_, she told herself. Again a lie; Taylor Doose showed his soft side all the time, and he was the last person on the planet she considered to be sexy. No, Kirk was the least sexy person on the planet; Taylor came a close second.

"Good," she breathed to herself, "this is finally working. Taylor's epic lack of sex appeal has distracted me from those other, far less gross but tantalizingly dangerous thoughts. Taylor, Kirk. Taylor, Kirk." She repeated those names, managing to suppress any notion of how insane she must be to think about Taylor and Kirk's sexiness.

She glanced over at Babette's house, where Rory was spending the night cat-sitting Morey's and Babette's kitten, Apricot. "That kid is growing up too fast," she grumbled, feeling pride and an unsettling sensation that she struggled to identify. Recalling their earlier discussion about Rory probably moving out in the not too distant future, she sighed. This was not a surprise, but it didn't mean it wasn't going to tear her heart out anyway.

All of her efforts to reduce her fixation on Luke's 'gratitude' were made utterly irrelevant when Stella's empty cage raised the Crap Shack emergency level to Chickcon 1.

"Stella!"

Her frantic initial search yielded nothing, not even a chirp from the fugitive chick. If Stella was dead, Rory would ensure that her dear but hopelessly scattered mother would be next. How did that damn bird even get out? She'd petted her a little while choosing paint chips for Luke, but she locked the cage. At least, she _thought_ she locked the cage.

"That's OK, I can fix this. We can fix this," she told herself, only conscious of the pronoun change after she had uttered it. She picked up the phone and dialed the only person capable of helping her.

"Hello?" She didn't bother waiting for the person at the other end of the line to answer.

"Yeah."

"Luke? Stella got out and…" Luke was bombarded by a vaguely familiar voice speaking a mile a minute, making no sense whatsoever. Who the hell was Stella and where had she been locked up?

When the maniac on the other end paused for breath, he barked, "Who the hell is this?" even as his subconscious already knew the answer.

"What do you mean? It's Lorelai. Who else would call you looking for her baby chick?"

Baby chick? Did she get hit with another crazy stick on the way home? "You're right," he replied with a sigh. "I'm the idiot. Go on." He continued cleaning the counter, making his final pass for the evening.

Her breathless pleas to come help her search for the 'baby chick' did not fall on deaf ears. "Yeah, okay. I'll be right over."

_I was right. There was a moment._ It felt good to know he could still read the signs.

A baby chick was loose in the house. Luke smiled at that one. Leave it to Lorelai to come up with an excuse no one else had ever thought of before. He'd heard a few in his day, but they were mostly snakes or bats. He ran upstairs for a quick cleanup and a touch of cologne, then headed over to Lorelai's house.

When he knocked, Lorelai opened the door, practically ripping his shirt open as she dragged him inside, pulling her close to him as she turned him to face her.

_Man, she really gives this everything she's got,_ he observed silently, smiling, waiting to see what happened next. His pulse picked up as he focused on her, trying not to miss any signs for his move. He'd kicked himself too many times for missing signs she'd given him in the past. Maybe tonight he wouldn't be too scared to let himself see them.

She grabbed him again, this time by his right hand, and gave him a step-by-step listing of 'Stella's' adventures, never letting him go. Her left hand brushed his thigh as she guided him across the room. He followed willingly, playing along.

As she described Stella's path through the chick magazines, she dropped his hand and used her free one to start tugging on his down vest. "This is definitely one of her best bits," he thought, watching her animated face as she enumerated the reasons Stella must be a girl chick.

"Jeez, what was that?" he asked. Looking under the sofa with her, he added, "You really do have a chick loose in here."

She wasn't kidding! This wasn't a bit, some clever plan to invite him over late at night. That's what drove him crazy about Lorelai. Just when he thinks he has something figured out, she swerves in the opposite direction and he's as discombobulated as ever. Now, he was here, and she needed him to find an actual chick - the kind with feathers.

They chased and searched, practically taking the living room apart as Stella darted under things and between weird little furniture pieces that you only see in girly houses. Eventually Lorelai flopped on the sofa in frustration while Luke continued his methodical search.

"Hey, Luke, what did you mean earlier?"

"What are you talking about?" Just catch the damn bird already, Danes, and find out what happens next.

"When you got here. You made some comment about me not really having a chick in the house."

"Hmm." This was the best reply he could formulate under the circumstances.

She builds up a big emergency on the phone, takes me through a fantasy of chicks using nail polish and reading magazines, then she asks ME why I'm here? We had a moment back at the diner, OK, more than one, but that last one was special. Sitting on the floor there, talking about my dad, it was so easy. It felt comfortable, like we'd been talking about those things forever, yet thrilling in a distinctly _un_comfortable way.

"I mean, if I didn't have a chick here, why did you think I was calling?"

A flash of panic raced through his brain. _Need to buy some time here_, he thought,_ while I figure this out_.

"No, I thought you were calling about the chick."

_This must be another bit. My gut tells me that there's something more here than just a favor. What makes sense? The only logical thing is that she let the chick out in order to make the story more real. She must be waiting for me to respond. Jeez. She could have just invited me over. This is so much work… yet maybe the type of work that turns out to be worth it in the end. More than worth it._

"OK. I just still think that -" she started, as he stood up, replaced the fireplace screen and went over to her, holding out his hand.

"Get up." She took his hand and he pulled her up with just enough force to bring her close to him. "I'm not searching for her all by myself."

"OK," she whispered, again feeling the impact of his standing close to her.

This time he took her by the wrist and guided her to the corner where Stella had last been seen. Putting his hand on the small of her back, he pushed her to the doorway, saying, "You get down on the floor here and be ready to catch her as I drive her your way."

"Head 'em up, move 'em out rawhide!" she joked, trying to diffuse the tension that had been building up within her since he arrived. Maybe for several days or weeks or...

"You can show me your boots and cowgirl hat later. Just be ready to catch her."

Lorelai's brain nearly exploded at Luke's joke. She stammered a little, cheeks flushing; she needed a long moment before she could reply. "R- R- Ready," she answered, the word coming out somewhere between a statement and a question.

Luke looked at her strangely. What was wrong with her now? All at once his unintended double entendre hit him and he dropped the multiple D-cell battery flashlight on his foot. "Ow! Dammit!" he cursed. He found himself hopping a little, wishing he could ease the embarrassment which stung more than the physical pain.

"Luke! Are you alright?!"

Lorelai stood up too fast, trying to move towards him at the same time she stood, which sent her careening into the end table next to the easy chair. Luke reached forward to try to catch her, managing only to knock the lemon lamp off the table as he fell to the floor. He narrowly missed Lorelai, who landed in a heap next to him.

Luke was flat on his back, groaning, his foot pain forgotten in the bruises building on his thighs where he'd landed first on the arm of the chair, then on his forearm which had hit the table on his way to the floor. His hat had fallen off and was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you trying to kill me, woman, because you're getting dangerously close to it," he groused, trying to decide which part of his body hurt the most. _His ego and pride_, he decided. Definitely those.

Lorelai had raised herself to a half-sitting position, and she looked down at Luke with affectionate sympathy, until the humor of the situation forced the laughter to bubble out of her.

He threw daggers at her with his eyes, then closed them, groaning again, wishing the throbbing would ease.

She was sitting next to the top of his head, looking down at his pained face when the feelings she was still reluctant to identify flooded back. Placing one hand on the floor on either side of his head, she bent her head over his and said softly, "Poor Luke, does it hurt much?"

She looked down at him, lying there with his eyes closed. This time she did not resist the urge to touch his hair, twirling one of the soft curls at the back of his neck. She contemplated kissing those lips which had smiled so sweetly at her back at the diner as he shared his father's stories.

Torn between her heady scent that was amplified by his lack of vision and his need to see what she was doing, Luke opted to feel rather than see. He moistened his lips nervously and waited, hoping.

She didn't disappoint. Lorelai turned, leaning herself on one elbow so she was both closer and better aligned with Luke's face. She traced his lips with her finger, then ran her thumb along his long, sturdy jaw, feeling the day's stubble. Returning her attention again to his lips, she bent down and gave him a fleeting, soft, tender kiss.

His mouth widened into a smile broader than he had believed himself capable of as he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Lorelai," was all he said, but it felt like a caress.

Smiling back at him, she touched the smile creases which had formed at the corners of his eyes. "I just wanted to know what it would be like to kiss you," she offered.

Happiness warmed his eyes, darkening his irises. He said simply, "My turn," pulling her face down to his, taking their next kiss deeper.

Before any real progress could be made, though, Stella reported in again with a muffled "Peep!" Luke sat up and they both looked in the direction of the sound but saw nothing.

"Peep! Peep!" Stella let loose again. The sound came from behind the end table.

Looking under the table, Luke could see his blue cap, lying among the shards of the porcelain lamp. He reached for the cap, then pulled back suddenly when it moved.

"There! Stella's under the cap!" he said, and pointed the location out to Lorelai. The cap moved again, ever so slightly.

"Stella! That's good, honey, that's good, let me save you from the big ol' dark baseball cap," she consoled the chick, carefully wrapping a hand over the opening in the back of the cap, then gently closing the cap over the chick.

"I've got you, I've got you, baby. We'll get you back into your cage, yes we will, everything will be okay."

"She better not pee in my cap," warned Luke, eyeing the chick with trepidation.

"Oh you big baby, nothing's going to happen to your cap, but even if it does, you can always wash it."

"I'm a big baby? You're the one who called in reinforcements to help you find a baby chick."

"Stella's never going anywhere ever again. I'm thinking of slipping some super glue on the bottom of the cage. That would be bad, right? I mean, I know staples are bad but what's the verdict on super glue?"

"Ask Stella."

Luke took a cardboard box and carefully put the pieces of the lamp in it. Once that was done, he said, "I'm gonna take this out to the trash. I'll be back in a minute."

"Great, I'll get a couple of beers out for us. You deserve a break and a big thank you for your help tonight."

They stood there for a long moment, uncertain about what to do next. Finally, Luke swallowed, looked around awkwardly and left via the side door, saying, "OK, let me just take this around back."

Lorelai watched him go, both excited and apprehensive. She finally knew what it was like to kiss him. It was, for lack of a more adequate adjective, good. _Very _good, actually. She definitely believed they would have to try that again, preferably in the very near future. She dove for the hall closet and began digging through the mounds of crap that she and Rory stored in there.

Once outside the door, he paused and took a deep breath. _That was nice, really nice_, he thought. It would also be nice if we could do it again. _Of course, our track record indicates that something really weird will interrupt us within the next minute or so._

He looked around. Nobody, not even Mrs. Kim, was in sight. _Maybe our luck is changing, _he thought as he bounded lightly down the stairs.

The sound of Babette's door opening and closing sank Luke's heart and his hopes.


	2. Play Ball

Play Ball

"Hey."

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?" asked Dean, a little embarrassed at being caught with Rory by her mom's boyfriend. At least, that's what some of the townies called him. Rory never mentioned him except in relation to food, but she discussed Luke's food a lot, so clearly the Gilmore Girls had some sort of special relationship with the diner owner.

"Looking for a chick," replied Luke, stony-faced.

"Me, too," he answered defiantly, not considering what he had just said.

"At Babette's?" Luke probed.

Dean got a sinking feeling in his stomach which wasn't due to Rory's cooking. That had been a great meal and he was very flattered that she would go to such trouble for him despite her opposition to ever becoming 'the little wife.' No, this was going to be whatever happened when Lorelai found out he'd been here alone with Rory.

"Yeah," was his fatal answer.

Luke's face froze in a scowl and he tilted his head a little. "You're calling Rory a chick?"

"Yeah, uh, I mean No!" Dean stumbled, trying to find the right words to get him out of this situation. He sensed no such words existed.

"Then where's the chick?"

Luke was starting to enjoy this. Everything Lorelai had told him about Dean was good; he was a nice kid. With the exception of Rory's first kiss, of course, Lorelai clearly liked Dean, and she'd even managed to come to terms with the kiss.

Dean's heart raced. Out of all the girls he'd dated back in Chicago, no one ever had a dad with a death stare like Luke's. _He's just standing there like a rock and staring at me._

Finally he blurted, "Um, er, Rory invited me over for dinner, that's all, honest!"

Dean decided to risk challenging Luke, trying to deflect attention from himself. "Are you calling Lorelai a chick?"

"No, we have an actual chick with feathers in the house," Luke replied superciliously.

Unnoticed by the shaking youth before him, Luke's eyes betrayed the laughter he had repressed. _If Lorelai were here, I wouldn't be able to hold this face for a second. She'd crack some joke and I'd be lost. This kid is really scared,_ he thought, _I'd better cut him a little slack for Rory's sake. And I will. In a minute._

Luke refocused his stare, counting beats in his head, _Wait one, two, three, then speak._

"C'mon, I'll show you where we put the" _pause another beat, catch Dean's eye again, _"trash."

_You mean where you're going to hide my body,_ Dean thought, actually starting to sweat.

Luke continued talking as they walked. "Chicago, huh?" _No need for full sentences in this inquisition._

"Yeah," Dean replied sullenly.

"Big cities stink. They're a blight on the environment. Too many people, too much pollution."

Dean squirmed as they turned the corner of Lorelai's house. _It's really dark back here, _he thought. _That's convenient, no witnesses._

"Put your trash in there," Luke said, tilting his head toward the metal trash can.

Dean did as he was told, then held the lid while Luke maneuvered the box with the lamp shards into the can as well.

"You play ball back there in Chicago?" Luke asked, finally letting his voice and expression return to normal.

"Yeah, all summer when I get the chance." He looked at Luke nervously, not once thinking to ask which kind of ball Luke was discussing.

"We have a pickup game here once or twice a week, starting about now and going until the weather is too cold. Wanna join us? We're always looking for players."

"Sure, that'd be great. When's the next game?"

Probably this weekend or next, maybe some evening. It all depends on the weather and who shows up. You got a softball mitt, right?"

"Fast pitch and slow pitch both. Bats, too." Dean's blood pressure was slowly coming back to normal.

"Good, I'll let Rory know when the next game shapes up so she can let you know."

Lorelai came out the door, pink glittery cowgirl hat hanging off the back of her neck.

"Hey Luke, I've got the beer – Dean."

"Uh, Lorelai, hi." Dean noticed the cowgirl hat and looked sideways at Luke, who apparently didn't see anything unusual in her costume. _Weird family, these Gilmore Girls._

"Fancy meeting you here," she said, knowing full well that her teenage daughter would invite her boyfriend over for the evening when she knew she'd be all alone. Before she could ask Dean what was going on, Babette's door opened and Rory stepped out, a vision in peach and pink.

Spying Dean, Rory said, "Hey, the Jell-O is doing this weird melting thing and I – oh, Mom, Luke.

"Rory." Luke had that smile again, the one that showed only in his eyes. His mouth was set in an almost straight line, but anyone who knew him recognized that he was laughing inside. He glanced up at Lorelai, who stared dumbfounded at her daughter. _There have been some very entertaining moments this evening,_ he thought, _with the distinct possibility of more to come_. _I can't wait to hear what Lorelai is going to say._

"Um, what the hell are you two doing?" Lorelai knew full well what they were doing, or at least what they intended to be doing very soon.

Panic flashed across Dean's face as he stumbled through an excuse. "Nothing! She, uh, well, um, we ate dinner! Yeah! You know, steak and beans."

"Canned," offered Rory.

"Canned," countered Lorelai, one eyebrow raised. That was her signature hit – she could freak Rory out at 20 paces with just that one look.

"Not fresh," Rory insisted, waggling her head back and forth as if she were a bobble head doll.

"No," said Dean helpfully.

"No," said Lorelai sternly.

_I'm sweating again. What is it with these people here in Stars Hollow? I never had this problem with parents in Chicago. _Dean searched wildly inside his brain for something more to say.

"And potatoes!" he felt relieved.

"From a box," added Rory.

Dean turned to Rory. "But they were still good."

Rory looked at Dean with a happy smile on her face, forgetting the situation for a second. "Thank you," she replied.

"You're welcome," he answered with his Rory-attracting smile. She smiled back, pleased that he'd noticed. _ This must be what made Donna Reed smile all the time, her family being so sweet and polite to her._

Remembering that they weren't along, Rory looked at her mother and noticed the hat. She raised her eyebrows and looked her mother in the eye. "Nice hat. So what were YOU guys doing?"

Lorelai saw that Rory had noticed the hat and nervously fingered the string around her neck. "Oh. Uh – In the house… Luke was just…"

Luke turned and looked at Lorelai, finally noticing the hat. His eyes grew big and a smile spread across his face. He moved over to the bottom of the steps, where he was once again surprised, this time by a pair of cowgirl boots. _Now we're getting somewhere, _he realized, and he looked at her, his eyes signaling the start of playtime.

Unsettled, Lorelai looked desperately across the yard at Rory. "Oh my God! I just saw the pearls!"

"I'm going in now." Rory was thoroughly embarrassed.

"You know what? I'm going inside too. 'Cause I have to write down all the ways I'm gonna torture you about that outfit."

"Good night!" Rory went inside as Dean walked toward the street.

Luke bounded up the stairs, half-chasing Lorelai as she, also embarrassed, dashed inside her house.

Once inside, Lorelai turned towards Luke, a nervously excited smile on her face. "Head 'em up?" she joked, posturing with the boots, one toe up and pointing to the side. He walked calmly to her and laid his arms on her shoulders.

Instead of embracing her, he took the hat and placed it askew on her head, adjusting it a little here and there, until he was satisfied.

"You like the hat, do you?" she asked teasingly.

"Yes, ma'am, I reckon I do," he drawled.

Out of the corner of her eye Lorelai noticed a shadow passing by her window. She grabbed Luke by the shoulder, hissing, "Hold that thought!" and ran over to the light switch, turning it off.

"Hurry, hurry, over there!" Lorelai pushed Luke towards the window. His leg slammed into something hard.

"Ow! That hurts! What are you doing? What was that?"

"That's a coffee table. I thought you knew about coffee. Coffee needs a table. What are you whining about?"

"I'm not whining, you shoved me into the corner of the table and it hurts!"

"You spent the last hour here in this room and you still can't keep out of the way of the coffee table? It wasn't a sneak attack, you know. It's not a kamikaze coffee table."

"Ah, forget it. What are you doing now?" This new bruise was adding insult to injury.

"OK, you stay right here and report on everything you see. I'll get the beer. Make sure they don't see you."

"So who doesn't see me? We're the only ones here."

Lorelai turned Luke's head out the window, where he saw Rory and Dean back outside, sitting on Babette's front porch. Rory was holding Apricot and petting him, while Dean had his arm around her shoulder and they shared a coffee.

Luke chuckled. "I get it, keeping a parental eye on things, are you?"

"Just stay out of sight and you'll get a nice drinky-poo."

"Beer is not a drinky-poo. It's beer. Chick beer, now that's a drinky-poo," grumbled Luke as he looked out the window. Lorelai gave him an exasperated look, then trotted off to the kitchen.

Lorelai returned, carrying two bottles of beer in hand. "Here you go. What's going on with my little Donna Reed out there?"

"Donna who? Never mind. Nothing. They're talking and drinking coffee. Why are we doing this? It's like watching a Barbie movie."

"This is a real Afternoon Special – Teen Love with garden gnomes." She took a draft of her beer. "God, isn't Babette's house perfect for this? It's a wonder Dean doesn't have a concussion from those doorways, but Rory looks like Snow White with her dwarves."

Luke and Lorelai moved closer to get a better view. Lorelai put her arm around Luke's waist, still intently peering out the window. "Thanks for helping this evening. Rory would kill me if she knew Stella had escaped. Look at them, sitting there, so happy."

_They do look cute, _he thought. It took him back many years, back when life was simpler for him. Leaning closer to Lorelai, Luke fingered the cowgirl hat, brushing off the odd bit of glitter that was dropping onto her forehead.

"It reminds me of my mom. On summer evenings, we'd sit on the front porch, just like that, Liz and me and Mom and Dad. Liz and Mom sat on the glider, rocking back and forth. Dad would be in a chair next to them, smoking, and I'd sit on the front steps. Mom would talk, never saying anything important, but it was great listening to them talk about their day."

Lorelai turned and looked at Luke, enraptured. _He's melting my heart again. _

"Luke, I can see you sitting there, teasing your sister, tossing your baseball. It sounds wonderful. It's no wonder you loved your family. "

"It was wonderful. Those were some of the best times of my life," he said softly.

He began twirling the curls peeking out underneath her cowgirl hat. Lifting the curls near her ear, he kissed the soft area below her earlobe, sucking gently on the sensitive skin. Lorelai curved her neck sinuously as she gave him a better target. _How did he zero in on exactly that spot? Guys almost never find that spot, but Luke did the first time he tried. _

Looking out the window again, she said, "Aw, look at that, they're saying goodnight. Isn't that sweet? And we get to watch it."

Luke knew that it was a waste of time to try to get her attention at this moment. Lorelai couldn't be distracted when she was focused on something important. Of course, 'something important' was almost always Rory. He loved that about her; she had a total commitment to her daughter. He gave her bare neck more attention, moving from her ear down to her collarbone, leaving kisses along the way.

When she was in "Rory mode," as he called it, she wasn't completely unaware, although he wasn't sure he wanted her to try crossing a busy street without help during those times. Tonight he could tell that she was still aware of him, not only because she was leaning into his caresses, but because of the death grip she had on his waist. He pressed his torso closer and let himself enjoy the intimacy.

"You know, Lorelai, at one point it stops being motherly oversight and starts becoming stalkerish. Has he gone yet?" asked Luke. He was starting to wonder if the death grip she had on him was going to become another bruise, not that it wouldn't be worth it. At least the injuries were getting smaller as the evening progressed. He might live to see tomorrow after all.

"Yes, it looks like they've had all the kissing they can handle for an evening. Rory's spending the night with Apricot at Babette's house."

Lorelai released the death grip on his waist and turned to face him full on. _She's back,_ he recognized, _and I like that look in her eyes._

"Good, because I haven't had all the kissing I can handle yet," he replied, "and time is running short. I have to open the diner tomorrow."

He pulled her close, this time really wrapping his arms around her body as she smiled, pushing her cowgirl hat further back on her head and looking at him with an impudent grin. She had been completely aware of Luke's attentions over the last few minutes; she had simply been keeping her eye on Rory. This was a talent most mothers developed, to be aware of what was going on around her while seeming to be fully focused on taking care of her baby.

"You were drawing a map, I believe," she said mischievously. "Starting point was about here, then you went here, then landed here, but uh-oh, looks like I've reached a roadblock."

On Luke's neck she traced the same path he had taken on hers, until her lips landed on the neck of his t-shirt. His scruffy beard tickled her lips as she traced its path from his ear to his neck.

"That last bit doesn't taste nearly as good as the first," she added as she pulled down the neck of the shirt to gain better access to his skin.

"Looking for hidden treasure, are you?" Luke asked, pressing his body against her.

She giggled as she answered. "Not so very well hidden, don't think I need a map."

"I can't say it, Lorelai, no way."

"Yes you can, Luke, give it a try."

"But it's hard," he said.

"Now you have to say it twice."

"No, the second time is yours. I only need to say it for the hidden treasure comment." He began to chuckle.

"You have to go first." Another giggle escaped Lorelai's mouth.

"Ok, but thank you for letting me go first." Another chuckle, then he added, "Now you owe me two 'dirties' and it's time to pay up."

Their whole romantic passionate moment dissolved in a bout of laughter, the couple holding onto each other as they laughed helplessly.

Still laughing, Luke said, "Let's try this again," as he guided her to the sofa. In the darkened room, still chaotic after Lorelai's wild search for Stella, he accidentally tripped on a stack of books, pushing Lorelai over the back of the sofa, where she landed with her boot-covered feet sticking up in the air.

"Luke!" She cried, still laughing. "Help me out here, OK?"

"I'll help you out of your boots at least," he said, pulling the cowgirl boots off her feet, after which he climbed over the back of the sofa, joining her in the disarray of throw pillows and cushions. He first untied, then removed his own heavy shoes.

"I can't believe you did that," she said, "You could have hurt me." She put her hands on his knees and began to pull herself up to sit on the sofa properly, helped by Luke's strong arms. He lifted her enough to sit on his lap, pulling her into his embrace.

"C'mon, Lorelai, you don't really think I'd deliberately hurt you, do you?"

She straddled his thighs, facing him and putting her arms around his neck. "Never in a million years, Luke," she said, finally settling into some serious necking.

He allowed her take the lead for the moment, letting her do what she wanted, letting her remember that she was the one who decided she wanted to cross the friends line, making something more of their relationship. Feeling the consequences of the decisions she was making was an intoxicating experience. Knowing that Lorelai chose him intensified his arousal; his fantasy of holding back evaporated quickly.

He guided her to lie flat on the sofa, tucking himself on his side next to her. Now he took the initiative, running his fingers through her hair, his fingertips raising goose bumps at the nape of her neck. She sighed as he let his thumb slide down her neck, landing on the pulse where her throat met her collarbone. She splayed her fingers on his chest, unbuttoning his flannel and pulling his t-shirt out of his pants. He removed the flannel to give his arms more mobility. She hummed her pleasure when her hands made contact with his skin, warm and smooth. Her hum turned to a quiet moan as his kisses became more insistent; he pulled her lower lip gently, releasing it to watch it fall back to meet her upper lip as she pressed them together, licking them in anticipation. His hands roamed her body, touching, encouraging, and offering promises of future joy.

Seeing Lorelai almost every day over the past few years, aching for her but not being able to have her, had made Luke master of his own domain. He was in this for the long term, determined not to be one of the multitude she cast off when she discovered the man was not the one she wanted. She always focused on what the guy wanted. But those guys she always released back into the wild.

His strategy was simple - she needed to be sure of what she wanted before he was willing to take the next step. The problem with the strategy was her ability to feel confidence in her feelings for him. The most confident woman he knew had a flaw - when it came to love, her fantasies overruled her innate knowledge of herself.

Weirdly, no one understood that diner conversations were never private. If people weren't talking loudly enough for the neighboring tables to hear, they would reveal some of their most private details when he was standing in front of them. Out of courtesy he never betrayed these unintended confidences, but he heard them nonetheless. Lorelai was no exception, and neither was Sookie.

He'd seen Lorelai when that teacher came to town one snowy night. Lane and Rory discussed him staying over during the snowstorm. Sookie talked about it while in the diner, when he learned that she'd broken up with him over concern for Rory. Lorelai's concerns about the teacher were the same concerns he'd heard about over the years, and they all used the same words – "I don't know; what does he want; maybe; maybe not; I have to know what he's thinking." She was never certain about what she wanted; she never took the time to decide for herself. It was always what the guy wanted.

That wasn't good enough for Luke Danes. Either Lorelai Gilmore wanted him confidently and completely, or he'd find a way to live with it. No matter how big the sacrifice.

The thought of screwing this up and losing her increased his desire to be close to her now. He wanted her to have no doubts about his feelings for her. His kisses became more urgent, his thumbs brushed over her breasts, making her nipples bead and eliciting moans from her. He wanted more from her now. He could tell that she wanted more, too, but he'd seen her bolt from guys who wanted sex now and (maybe) a relationship later. He didn't want her to bolt; he wanted her to be there later, forever if possible. As much as he wanted to continue, to release all of the love and passion inside him, it wasn't yet time. Almost imperceptibly, he changed his caresses to be more loving and tender instead of pressing and urgent. Some minutes later he felt calm enough to continue the conversation they had just barely started hours ago.

"Lorelai."

"Mmm, what, Luke?" _His hands were doing all the right things in all the right places. I really like the slow burning flame he's started inside of me. _

"You never told me what you thought."

"Thought about what?"

"About a million years ago tonight, you kissed me for the first time, then you said, 'I just wanted to know what it would be like to kiss you,' but you never told me what you thought."

"I'm still here. We're doing this," she said, waving her arm at them cuddling on the sofa. "Doesn't that tell you what I think?"

"No. Only you can tell me what you think."

"I don't know."

"Yes you do, Lorelai. I've known you too long; we've been friends for too long for me to believe otherwise."

She shuddered. Luke got an ache in his chest, sensing how hard this must be for her, how many walls she has to break down to tell herself the truth. _And later to tell me the truth as well. Suddenly my grand strategy feels a lot like jumping out of an airplane with a parachute packed by a stranger._

He pulled her closer. "Lorelai, the truth is always better. You can say it, whatever it is."

She closed her eyes, burying her face in his shoulder. _I would have been better off giving him the lap dance,_ she thought. _A few short smutty minutes and I wouldn't have to talk about my feelings._

"Wonderful," she started, haltingly.

Luke smiled his Lorelai smile, kissed her hair, saying, "I'm glad. Happy, actually. That's exactly what I was thinking."

She couldn't help smiling at the stumbling way he said, "Happy." Sounded just like the way he'd said "fun" earlier this evening. Encouraged, she dared to go further. "I couldn't wait for the next one," she said, raising her eyes to his. "Then I began to wonder if you'd broken your foot from the flashlight."

He laughed and said, "Seems about right. My foot's OK, but hopefully there won't be any more injuries tonight. Think you can manage that?"

He looked at Lorelai, noticing her thoughts were somewhere else. "What's on your mind?"

_Your scent. It's driving me crazy again._ Lorelai continued to caress Luke's chest, her hand having taken up residence there. She stared at his body in the darkness, and smelled the combined musk of their bodies as they lay inseparable on the sofa.

There was more than his proximity on her mind. "Why didn't you kiss me in the diner? I was sure you were going to."

It was Luke's turn to feel uncomfortable. _I never thought about this. The only truthful answer reveals my whole strategy. He couldn't want truth from her if he wasn't willing to give it himself._

"I wanted you to WANT to kiss me before it happened. Sounds stupid, saying it out loud."

"Not stupid. It's very … Luke."

"What in the world does 'very Luke' mean?" He was getting more than he bargained for now.

"Good question. I hardly know how to describe it. It's what makes your coffee taste better than any other coffee, you know? I mean, you don't even drink coffee, but I'm not the only person whose day isn't complete without your cup o' joe."

"You care about Rory for herself, not as a means to get to me. That's more than her father does sometimes, and definitely more than most of the guys who wanted to date me."

Luke shifted uncomfortably, wishing this discussion would stop.

"Are you OK? Am I crushing you?" Lorelai asked. They shifted again, this time together, Luke putting his arm under Lorelai's neck, her head resting on a throw pillow. She nestled into the warmth of his body, her hand reclaiming ownership of his chest. She tucked the toes of one foot between his legs just above the ankles, rubbing absently up and down his calf. She yawned, infecting Luke with the same.

"This feels nice," she said as she continued answering his question.

It wasn't getting any easier for Luke, all this talk about him, most of which couldn't possibly be true. He closed his eyes, trying to enjoy the sound of her voice yet not listen.

"You treat your customers well, especially those you've known a long time. You flirt with the older ladies, but never with the ones who come onto you. You do your best with Kirk and that's really not easy."

She continued, but Luke was drifting off to sleep. He dozed off for a moment, but snapped his eyes open again. Lorelai was still telling diner stories, and town stories, all Luke stories.

"I love how you love this town, but don't like to put yourself front and center. You're still there when we need you." She yawned again, and her stories slowed down, but her mouth was still moving when she fell asleep mid-sentence.

In spite of his drowsiness, he was surprised. _She really talked herself to sleep? How can anyone fall asleep talking?_ Resting his chin on top of her head, he breathed a deep sigh and let himself sleep as well.

* * *

><p>Luke's Circadian rhythm woke him up early enough to realize that there was enough time to get to the diner and open as long as he didn't dawdle too long. Lorelai was still fast asleep, lying half on top of him, so he tried at first to ease his body out from under hers.<p>

The many bruises and the night on the uncomfortable sofa caused him to groan audibly with pain. No reaction came from Lorelai, so he gently shook her. Nothing. "Lorelai." A harder shake. Nothing. Finally he lifted her shoulders as he tried to sit up, which finally got her to crack open her eyes.

"Hi," she said, smiling at Luke with a sleepy face.

"Hi back," he replied, experimenting to find out if kisses were more effective than shaking. Kisses did at least get her moving; he made a mental note of that.

"What happened last night?" she asked, a little confused. "We were doing fine, and talking, but I don't remember what happened next." She stretched and tried to remember how the evening ended. "Hey, we didn't get very far, did we?" She put her arms around him and climbed on top of him for a deep kiss.

_I could dawdle a little,_ he rationalized, _and the early birds like Kirk can just cool their heels for once. _

He slid his hands under the back of her shirt, releasing her bra and running his hands down her smooth back. At her waist, he let his fingers explore the curves below. She reached down herself, unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans, giving his large hands better access.

She then moved her hands to his waist, unbuckling his belt, then opening his pants. Luke could feel the warmth of her hands sliding into his boxers until she grasped his hardness. He tensed his abdomen, feeling himself getting even harder than he already was.

"You're wearing too many clothes," she groused, pushing his pants down his hips and over his perfectly curved ass. He shifted on his hip, pulling his dark jeans over his thighs, making it possible to kick his jeans down around his ankles where he pulled them off and tossed them aside. His boxers soon followed.

"Shirt, shirt," she breathed as she first tugged on his T-shirt, then pulled her own shirt over her head, freeing the bra in the process. He quickly removed his shirt and positioned himself between her legs. Completely free of clothes, Luke eased her jeans down over her hips, caressing the skin as he pulled them lower. Moving to the farthest end of the sofa, he pulled the jeans off completely by the hems of each leg. Breathing hard with excitement, he moved back between her legs, and she welcomed him by wrapping her legs over his thighs, urging him to come closer.

Back together, their kisses and caresses became more driven, turning into nips and rough squeezes, driving their desire higher. Lorelai pulled him on top of her, finally feeling every square inch of skin possible, touching everywhere they could touch, short of being finally and intimately connected.

The shrill sound of the alarm changed Lorelai from a heated, passionate lover into a panicked mom protecting her child from multiple decades of therapy.

"Get up! Get up! Get up! Now, now, now! There's no time to waste!" She pulled herself away from Luke, who groaned in real agony this time.

"No, not yet, please. We were so close." _I'm beginning to think this is never going to happen, and I'm starting to wonder just how much a man's body can take before he explodes._ "What's going on, Lorelai?"

"That was Rory's alarm! She's going to be here any minute! We can't have her find us like this, Luke, she'll be scarred for life."

"Not just her," he mumbled, searching for his clothes from all the places they had landed this morning. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was to have Rory find them in their current state. He looked down, and felt even worse. He couldn't even be here when she walked through the door unless things calmed down a lot really fast, and that wasn't how it generally worked for him.

Lorelai looked at him in a panic. "Laundry room! Go to the laundry room! She won't go in there. She'll come in the front door, go to her bedroom, then take a shower. As long as you're not visible when she walks by the laundry room, she won't know you're there. You can go out the back door when she's busy."

He looked at her skeptically, but she didn't even give him a chance to ask the question. "No! I've never had to hide anyone before! How could you even think that? You know how much I protect Rory. You're the first man to ever stay overnight." That last bit of news she tossed over her shoulder as she searched for their clothing, missing Luke's reaction completely. Finding enough of her clothes, she pulled them on as quickly as possible.

Luke added to the urgency, saying, "Well, the two people in the world most dedicated to protecting Rory are in this room, and unless we find my boxers and my flannel pretty damn fast, we're going to be putting a therapist on call 24/7 for a while."

"OK, go to the laundry room and put on everything you have right now. I'll look for the rest and bring it to you when I can."

"Ahem," he said, waving at his pants, shoes and T-shirt, indicating the lack of underwear.

Lorelai gave him an exasperated look. "For God's sake, go commando for ten minutes! I'll take care of the rest when she's in the shower."

She pushed him unceremoniously into the laundry room and then closed the door after him. "Sit down and don't make a sound!" she ordered, running back in the direction of the living room.

Scanning the living room for a second, she spotted his socks and his flannel. She grabbed them, dashed back to the laundry room and tossed them inside, where Luke had his pants and T-shirt on already. She suddenly turned around and ran back into the laundry room, startling Luke. She grabbed him by his arms and shoved him up against the washer.

Putting him practically in a choke hold, she jumped up on him and kissed him as if her life depended on it. He caught her and held her as he pushed their kiss one level deeper, undoing all the calming work that he had achieved since he'd been hiding here alone with the laundry.

The click of the door opening gave the final end signal for their fun that morning. "Mom!" Rory called, walking towards the stairs to listen to her mother's usual gripe about being woken up too early. Receiving no answer, she turned around, noticing the state of the living room.

"Mom? Are you OK? This place is a wreck."

One last hot kiss and Lorelai pushed Luke to the floor and slipped back into the kitchen, calling breezily, "Hello sprout! I was just in the laundry room looking to see if some magical laundry prince had done our wash. No such luck yet."

"What happened in the living room? Did you play tornado again?"

"No, no, it's all Luke's fault." Luke, still tying his shoes, stopped and raised his eyebrows, wondering if he should be offended. "He came over after we chose paint to help me move some furniture. We got into a big fight and I kinda threw some things, then he broke the lemon lamp."

"But all of the furniture is exactly where it was yesterday," Rory noted. "You threw things at Luke?"

_Damn my daughter's steel-trap memory!_ "Yeah, the furniture was kinda what we argued about. After I made him move all the stuff around, I realized it looked better the way it was in the first place, which made Luke mad."

"Of course he'd get mad, Mom, he has every right to get mad about that. You know better than to treat Luke that way. Repeating, you threw things at Luke?" Rory chided.

He wished he could laugh out loud at that moment. _That's right,_ Luke thought, _Listen to Rory, Lorelai, you should treat me better. I have some very specific ideas about just how Lorelai could make me feel better._

"He shouldn't have gotten mad in the first place," complained Lorelai. "I was trying to be really nice to him. Really, really nice," she added defensively.

Luke would never betray his thoughts at this moment to Lorelai, because she didn't deserve the satisfaction, but the only correct response to her statement was "Dirty!" He grinned to himself.

"Mom, promise me you'll be nicer to Luke and not tease him as much. I love him too much to treat him badly. YOU love him too much to be so mean to him, you've told me often enough. Plus, we both know how much he loves us, too. Promise?"

_He is never going to let me forget this moment. I'm going to pay for this for the rest of my life. _Lorelai sighed, then replied, "OK, kid, I promise. I'll apologize to him for the fight, we'll make up and hug, and all will be forgotten. Will that satisfy you?"

"Aw, Mom, that's sweet of you. I don't think Luke gets enough hugs. I wanna be there too, to see his face. He'll either really appreciate it, or he'll totally freak out. Either way I want to see it. I'm going to get ready for school now; I already showered at Babette's." Rory went into her room.

Once the door had closed, Lorelai went back to the laundry room, where Luke sat on the floor, a big smile on his face.

"I see you there, looking cocky. Don't you try anything!" she hissed. Silent, he grabbed her hand and pulled her down to the floor.

"Tell me about the love," he whispered, his grin widening even more.

Thirteen different emotions flashed across her face, each one producing a different shade of purple. "No," she muttered, crossing her arms protectively

"Tell me about the love," he whispered, more insistently this time. Pulling her to him, he began kissing her again on the soft skin below her ear lobe. One, two, three kisses, then he stopped, took her hands in his and waited.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "It's just platonic love, like a sister, or a friend, or a cousin. Or a cookie." Her brain was clutching at straws, again fighting off anything that might have resembled the truth. The problem was, she had nothing left to fight with except the truth. She looked down at her hands, uncertain how to continue.

Closing her eyes, she started, "I didn't even know I loved you in 'that way' until …"

Luke was in shock. He hadn't expected to hear that from Lorelai. Hoped, maybe, one day, but expected – never. He froze in place while she decided what she wanted to say, or not say.

For a while, it seemed like he couldn't hear anything but the sound of his own racing heartbeat. _It's not fair to her to keep looking at her, I need to look away, give her some peace. Follow your own damn strategy._ Using every bit of moral fiber he possessed, Luke looked down at his feet, giving Lorelai the chance to change the subject, or change her mind, or do anything. _One minute. In one minute I'll leave, let her figure it out when I'm not around._

The seconds ticked awkwardly by. Luke decided not to wait, believing it would be more fair to her to leave now. He began to move, but stopped when she pulled on his hand.

"… until you said, 'Thank you.' That's why I had to leave the diner. I couldn't let myself believe it, until that moment I didn't even let myself think it could be possible."

Luke's whisper was made even softer because he could hardly utter any sound. "And now?"

When she looked up at him, the depths of her blue eyes were endless. "Now I believe it."

"Mom! Where are you? What are we doing for breakfast? I need to get going before I miss my bus."

"That kid has perfect timing, doesn't she?" said Lorelai as she slowly stood up. She added in a whisper, "You can leave now that she's in the kitchen. I'll keep her there."

"Put in some Pop-Tarts, Rory," she said as she and Luke exchanged long looks before he quietly closed the door on his way out. "We won't have time to go to Luke's this morning."

Outside, Luke's brain practically exploded with crazy thoughts. _Go to work? I know I have to, but I can't leave just yet. Back in the laundry room? Lorelai would kill me. Rushing back in and continuing that moment with Lorelai is what I really want to do. Impossible._ Another idea struck him, slightly less dangerous than the others.

"Are you avoiding Luke's because of the fight, Mom?" Rory had seen her mother avoid Luke in the past, especially when she felt guilty about something or when they'd had an argument.

"No, hon, it's because you're running late. Look at the time."

Rory took her backpack and dropped it near the door. She was on her way back to the kitchen to get her breakfast when someone knocked on the door.

"Luke!" she said, surprised. "This is pretty early for you to come here, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he acknowledged, "I just wanted to come by for a minute before it gets too busy at the diner." He leaned in a little close to Rory and half-whispered, "We had a fight last night, and I want to make up."

"Mom! Luke's here! Come out here and apologize!" To Luke, she quietly asked, "Did she hurt you?"

He replied in a similar tone, "I have a couple of bruises, but I'm OK." Rory was shocked. Lorelai had never injured Luke before. She committed herself to getting them to make up right now.

Lorelai stormed into the foyer. "You have no shame, Luke Danes." He managed to keep a straight face, only his eyes betrayed his mirth.

"Mom! I'm shocked! How can you treat Luke this way? He's here to make up. Now be nice."

Luke looked penitent. "Aw, Lorelai, I didn't want to leave things the way they were last night. I want to move forward with a better relationship. Can't we at least try?"

Seeing the laughter in his eyes, Lorelai charged toward him, but was stopped by her daughter. "Mom, I'm warning you, don't mess this up." Rory gave her mother her sternest baby-face stare. _Both of them ganged up against me. I don't stand a chance_, Lorelai concluded.

She backed off, eyes spitting venom at Luke. While Rory faced Lorelai, he made a smug face at her, then winked at her broadly.

"I'm sorry we fought, Luke," she said, her voice dripping with residual anger. "But,"

Rory interrupted her, cautioning, "Mom, that's enough. Wasn't there something else you wanted to do?"

"No."

"If you just get it over with, I won't be late for school. Otherwise, you might cost me a grade and I won't become valedictorian and I won't get into Harvard. Do you really want that on your conscience?"

"I'm rethinking this whole maternal love thing at the moment."

"Get it over with, Mom."

Lorelai looked up at Luke and said as gratingly as possible, "Hug?"

"Sure!" he said with a big smile. He opened his arms wide and stood still, forcing her to come to him. When she angrily pressed her arms around his chest, trying to squeeze the life out of him, he wrapped his around her, picked her up and twirled her around, setting her down again next to Rory, who thought Luke's PDA was a little weird, but still kind of cute.

Taken slightly off-kilter by his bear hug, Lorelai stood a little unsteady for a moment. She hated that she couldn't hate him because of that hug. Memories of last night and this morning were simply too fresh.

"I'm gonna go now," Luke said, "but Rory, if you come after school, there's any pie you want on the house. Lunch for you, too, if you want it, Lorelai. Will I see you girls later?"

"You sure will, Luke, thanks! You'll go too, right, Mom?"

Lorelai had already decided to forgive Luke for his prank, but she played the injured party for a moment more. She opened the door for him as Rory began to pull her jacket on.

"I'll see," she said petulantly, "It depends on how busy I get at work. Rory, don't forget we have dinner at Grandma's tonight."

Disappointment flashed over Luke's face as he left the porch. He'd forgotten about their Friday Night Dinner and had hoped to finally spend some uninterrupted time with Lorelai tonight.

Lorelai was even less thrilled than Luke about the time they would spend apart tonight. There was a lot to talk about, both of them were late for work, and they still hadn't had a chance to finish what they'd started last night. She really wanted to finish what they'd started, no matter what it turned out to be.


	3. A Really Nice Man

Really Nice Man

Luke chuckled as he crossed Lorelai's yard, heading for the diner. _Revenge can be sweet._ About 30 seconds later, as the early morning chill set in, he realized how much he'd left behind in the Crapshack beyond his girls, namely his down vest and his boxers. Maybe Lorelai would bring them when she came for lunch. _If she remembered. If she could find them. If she was even coming for lunch._

He shivered as the doubts set in. _She knew she wanted to kiss me last night. She seemed certain of her feelings this morning. What will she be thinking by lunchtime? Impulsive could have been Lorelai's middle name; she could be regretting this already._

He knew what Taylor Doose and Kirk were thinking as they stood outside the diner. He could read it in their body language as he approached. Taylor wanted something and Kirk wanted breakfast and companionship. Taylor looked at his watch, then gave Luke a reprimanding look.

"Lucas, you are 12 minutes late. I'd fine you for promising shop hours but not delivering them, but I'm in a mood to be lenient today." Taylor definitely wanted something, because nothing gave him more pleasure than fining Luke's Diner.

"Breakfast is running late today. Eggs and toast you can have immediately, pancakes take an extra fifteen minutes, and what do you want, Taylor."

"Now, Luke, that's no way to greet customers, especially when you're providing bad service." Taylor entered the diner as if he owned the place, looked around, then argued with Kirk over the seat nearest to the cash register.

"That seat's reserved," Luke growled. "Go sit by the window. Your orders will be up soon." He planned to keep that seat open for Lorelai or Rory if they came in. It was a nice bonus to move those two away from his main work area.

"Luke, I wanted to talk to you about your spruce," began Taylor as he checked the seat for dirt, then sat down at a table next to Kirk's table. "I think we should …"

"Spruce? What spruce?" interrupted Luke. Even though he knew full well what Taylor meant, he was going to make him work for it today.

Taylor ignored him as usual. "We need to take before and after pictures to put up on the Stars Hollow website. It will help draw families and businesses to the area."

Luke smirked. If Taylor only knew that the spruce was a tiny change compared to the change in the diner owner and his favorite customer.

"No pictures, Taylor. I'm going to post a 'No Cameras Allowed' sign right next to the cell phone sign."

"Luke, obviously you can't do that. What about all the families who come here for a celebration and want to take a photo as a remembrance? Just last Sunday you had a family here celebrating the grandmother's birthday. It was such a sweet sight, Granny surrounded by all her grandbabies."

"They can go outside and stand next to the people using their cell phones. They can ask the cell phone people to take pictures of them and Granny out for their birthday brunch. No photos."

"What colors did you finally choose? I thought the English Country Garden look would suit the diner best. You could dress all the employees in powder blue and pink shirts with khaki pants."

"Whatever Lorelai chose, but it was NOT the Country Garden, and nobody is going to dress in powder blue anything in this diner."

Luke sighed as the rest of the regulars rolled in. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p><em>That prank will not go without reprisal. Luke took complete advantage of the situation-first listening in, then manipulating Rory to make me apologize. And that hug!<em> Lorelai's blood quest faded as she remembered what happened before Rory came home. So many confusing things had happened; she really needed Sookie to help her work through it all. She pulled into her Executive Manager parking space at the Independence Inn, ran up the stairs and in the front door.

Stopping by the front desk, she checked with the team and cleared up the items needing her attention. Afterwards she dropped her jacket and purse in her office and pushed through the double-hinged door into the kitchen.

"Who wants to hear about my night?" she asked Sookie after Michel stormed out of the room, angry that Sookie refused to make him an egg white omelet.

"Oh, me!" replied Sookie, continuing with her cooking.

"Well, it started with Rory's baby chick getting loose in the house." _It probably would not be a good idea to start with the paint choosing. Sookie would be all over that._

"Wow, that's very Wild Kingdom of you."

"Yeah. I'm like the Marlin Perkins of Stars Hollow."

"You want some coffee?"

"Please."

"So how's Rory's chick?"

"Uh, better than my lemon lamp."

"What's the matter with your lemon lamp?"

"Luke killed it."

"On purpose?"

"Well I can't prove it, but I will."

"What was Luke doing there?"

"Well I called him when I got home and Stella wasn't there."

"Stella is the chick?"

"Yes."

"I like that name."

"'Streetcar Named Desire'."

"Vivian Leigh or Jessica Tandy?"

"Hello-Tandy."

"Of course. Continue."

"So I evaluated the situation in my usual calm, collected manner –"

"Hmm."

"And then I called Luke to help me track her down."

"That's when he broke the lamp?"

"Yeah, he's not very graceful. You know, he said the weirdest thing."

"'May I break your lamp?'"

"Well he got there and I was looking for Stella and he said, 'Oh, you really do have a baby chick loose in the house,' like I made that up, or-I don't know."

"Well."

"Well what?"

"Well you call someone and you say, 'Can you come over and help me look for my loose chick?' It's a little ..."

"A little what?"

"It sounds a little like the code for, 'I'm not wearing any underwear.'"

"That's not the code for 'I'm not wearing any underwear.'"

"OK."

"Sookie, you're not serious?" It slowly dawned on Lorelai that this is probably exactly what Luke was thinking when she called. _Maybe he was thinking it already back in the diner. Are my signals so obvious?_

"Look, the first time Jackson and I...you know."

"Yeah."

"Yeah. I called him up and I told him I had a bat in my attic."

"Well, honey, you do have a bat in your attic."

"So, he came over and went in the attic and he knew there was no bat and I knew there was no bat, but we pretended to look for it, and then when we couldn't find "the bat" we went downstairs and we had a bottle of wine …"

"So you're saying Luke thought I made up a crazy story about a chick being loose in the house just to get him in bed?"

"Not just to get him in bed, but maybe he thought you wanted to see him and you didn't know how to say it."

"That's nuts." _Nuts, maybe, but it worked._

"A woman asking a man to come over late at night to her house. Come on."

"Yeah. But this is Luke we're talking about."

"Uh-huh. Why did you call him?"

"Because I needed help."

"Yeah. Why didn't you call me?"

_I never considered anyone besides Luke. The only other people on my mind were Kirk and Taylor, and they REALLY weren't under consideration. _"Because I assumed you would be with Jackson."

"Uh-huh."

"Well I did." _Inside my head I have my fingers crossed, making this a little white lie._

"Why didn't you call Rory?"

"Because she would have been furious to find out that Stella was missing." _ Finally the truth._

"Why didn't you call Patty? She raises chickens."

"Sookie."

"Or Andrew? He lives right around the corner, doesn't he?"

"What is your point?" _I thought I could tell her, but this is too much. Did I really throw myself at Luke?_

"My point is that you called Luke. Out of all the people in town that you could have called that would have come over and dropped what they were doing, you called Luke."

"Because I had just been with him. We were picking out paint samples. He was on my mind. It was purely a timing thing." _You better believe it was timing. Timing and the sexiest man on the planet whispering sweet 'Thank yous' in my ear._

"Picking out samples."

"Yes."

"For Luke's place."

"Yes."

"So you could paint together."

"Once again, yes!"

"Mm-hmm. Which I believe was your idea."

"OK, so now the fact that I suggested painting Luke's diner also means that I wanted to get him in bed. All of a sudden I'm trying to get any poor, unsuspecting person in bed with me. I'm like-I'm Michael Douglas!"

"Lorelai. This -"

"Just-thanks for the omelet."

"No, honey, I'm sorry. I don't want you to be mad. Don't be mad at me." _Lorelai, I just want you to realize that you have a thing for him as much as he has one for you._

"I'm not mad, I'm not mad. I'm tired."

"OK. You know, Luke is a really nice man."

"Bye, Sookie." Lorelai rushed out of the kitchen.

The double-hinged door didn't have a chance to complete a full swing before Lorelai was back in the kitchen.

"Sookie, there's more."

"More, like Luke broke your blender? Or like Luke received your signal even if you didn't?" Sookie knew something was up. Her best friend was paddling the denial boat a little too fast today.

Lorelai twisted her fingers together and shifted from one foot to the other. She smiled sheepishly and said, "The second one. Apparently I'm a giant antenna radiating Luke waves."

"Eeek!" screeched Sookie as Lorelai found herself in Sookie's choke hold of joy.

"Oh this is so great! I am so happy for you! You guys finally worked it out!" After allowing Lorelai to breathe again, Sookie began bouncing around the kitchen clapping her hands. "Tell me everything."

Lorelai described the evening in relatively good detail, including Luke's delicious 'Thank You' (but not her lap dance fantasy), the lemon lamp destruction and Luke's associated injury, and the first kiss.

"You kissed him first? I always thought you would," Sookie said.

"Why? Why would you think that Luke wouldn't be first? Guys always kiss me first. I've never had to decide that for myself. That's how I know they're interested."

"Honey, that's the point. Luke isn't like the other guys. He's specially designed for Lorelai Gilmore. He's not pushy like those guys; he's there for you. Jackson was kind of the same way, he was always open to a relationship with me, but he just didn't push it, he let me decide when I was ready."

"How will I know if I'm ready?" Lorelai asked.

"Lorelai, honey, you wanted to know what it was like to kiss him, so you kissed him. You bend over backwards to help him, like paint the diner. Most important, you know that he and Rory are compatible. He adores that child almost as much as he adores you. There's never been anyone more ready than you in the history of love."

As a best friend, Sookie could sometimes be grating and inquisitive. At other times, though, she said exactly the right thing at the right time. This was one of those right times.

"Sookie, I think I'm ready. It's time I made a move."

"With Luke? Yes it is. Way past time."

"Do you think I'm going to hurt him? Do you think he'll hurt me?"

"Honey, it happens in every relationship. Even you and Rory hurt each other sometimes. You just keep loving each other and work through it, just like you and Rory do."

"Do you think we can be happy together?"

"Lorelai, Luke's the whole package. You are not going to understand what happiness means until you are together."

"It's not too fast?"

"It doesn't matter if it's your first kiss, or your first date, or your first 'um-hum,' it's Luke. Whatever time you think is right, you have to add on the four years you've known each other already, so no, nothing is too fast. You could get married next week and it wouldn't be too fast. That's just how well you two know each other. Lorelai, it's time to jump."

"Jump?"

"Jump. Now. Today."

"Yeah, uh, I think I'm going to go out for lunch today."

Sookie smiled, "Sounds good. Tell me all about it later, OK?"

* * *

><p>Lorelai's late arrival at work and long discussion with Sookie pushed her lunch out until mid-afternoon. Everyone at the inn seemed to need a piece of her this morning. Michel had been dealing with obstreperous customers who ultimately insisted on talking with the manager. Repairs on the bathtubs in three rooms were underway and more expensive than expected. A Bridezilla had reared her ugly head less than a month before the wedding. It was early afternoon before she started the financial reporting she needed to make to Mia, and Lorelai liked to include a personal note updating Mia on the local goings-on.<p>

Writing Mia's note, Lorelai enjoyed a few minutes of girlish fantasizing about Luke. Yes, there were perfect kisses last night, tucked in among the exploratory kisses where they searched each other's bodies for responsive areas. Even their interrupted tryst held the promise of more. None of that could go into Mia's letter this month, though. Maybe next month. This month she kept it to Rory's schooling and her Donna Reed dinner with Dean at Babette's.

Finally she felt her work was done enough to take a break. Stopping in the kitchen, she said, "Wish me luck!" and got a dimpled grin and a wink in return.

The drive to the diner seemed extra-long, as events always do when the objective is highly anticipated. Even parking proved to be a problem, something about a big sale on porcelain unicorns going on down the street.

She parked, freshened her makeup and hair and smoothed the front of her purple satin shirt. As she got out of the car, she reached into the back and took out the bag with Luke's down vest.

The diner was busy, but not impossibly so. Luke was nowhere to be seen, so she took a seat at the counter, setting the bag with Luke's vest on the ground. It accidentally gaped a bit, showing the vest. Not wanting anyone to see, she bent over to adjust the bag.

At that exact moment, Luke came out of the kitchen, his hands full of plates. Seeing someone on the stool, he barked, "That stool is reserved! Find a table," like he'd said a dozen times that day. Lorelai gathered her things and slid off the stool, looking around for an empty table.

Never questioning that the person would move, Luke focused on delivering the food to his customers. When he finished, he turned to the errant customer and his jaw dropped. "Lorelai!"

Coming over to her, he said quietly, "You don't have to move. That stool's for you today." With a smile he put his hand in the small of her back and guided her toward the stool again.

"Hi," she said, her own smile firmly in place. He was close enough for her to take in his scent, bringing her momentarily back to their tryst this morning, with an added whiff of bacon.

"Hi back," he answered, giving her arm a squeeze, undetected by the other customers before moving around to his usual side of the counter. They stood there, silent, smiling.

In the usual practice of new lovers, this was all they needed for the moment-acknowledging that the other person was indeed right in front of them, plus the uninterrupted moment in which they could enjoy each other's company.

Tom the contractor gathered his belongings and approached the cash register, regarding the couple with amusement. The brief touches between them weren't lost on Tom.

Tom had known Luke since the latter was a child and Tom a young contractor. He'd given Luke some early instruction in wood working and had him out on construction sites as a runner several times, eventually hiring him for part-time work during high school. He'd seen Luke smitten before, but never like this. Luke's on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel had been serious, but after the first couple of breakups, no one took it seriously anymore, except Luke.

Tom knew from Luke's work habits that he was trustworthy and loyal, sometimes to the point of damaging what he was loyal to. Luke's relationship with Rachel was one of those cases. They were never going to be together permanently, he could see, since Tom's wife was Rachel's father's sister, and as family, they knew Rachel better than Luke did. Rachel wrote and called her family regularly, but only contacted Luke when she was lonely or feeling insecure in her career. At those times, the idea of living in Stars Hollow, reflecting on her exciting career, being one of the bigger stars in the Hollow, married to a stand-up guy like Luke was very attractive. That wish always faded, however, and she jumped on the next job or the next fantasy and was soon gone again.

Each breakup was forever, Tom gave Rachel credit for that. Neither Luke nor Rachel had any illusions about a long-distance relationship, but Luke was persuaded each time she returned to take her back. Why Luke took her back Tom never quite understood. Looking at Lorelai, Tom figured that the next time Rachel returned, she might be the one who was disappointed when she left.

Tom ended Luke and Lorelai's moment with his gruff voice. "Hey Luke, if you've got a minute, I'd like to have a chance to part with some of my hard-earned money. That is, if you can tear your eyes away from other matters."

"Tom," Luke answered as he took Tom's ticket and money, making change, "We've got a quaint custom around here. It's called minding your own business." The high color in his cheeks betrayed his embarrassment. Tom merely smiled politely.

Lorelai, who'd been embarrassed more times than she could count, cast her eyes down to the counter for a minute, actually enjoying Tom's teasing, which was harmless and contained, in contrast to the unyielding attention provided too frequently by Babette and Miss Patty. She was just grateful that they weren't present for this moment between her and Luke.

Looking around the room, Luke could see that none of the few occupied tables were obviously in need of anything, so he made a quick round with the coffee pot and returned to the counter, acting as if it were just any other day, when he and Lorelai would enjoy a round of banter until one of them was called away to work or parenting duties.

Pouring her a coffee, he returned the pot to the warming plate and turned to her, leaning on his hands so he could talk quietly.

"Terrible customer service today, I see," she teased, "It took forever to get my coffee."

"I had important matters to attend to," he bantered back, "but now I'm all yours." His crinkled eyes and the smile on his face left no doubt as to his meaning.

"Here's your vest," Lorelai said, sliding the bag on the floor around to the side of the counter, where he deftly picked it up and tucked it under the counter.

"And the other?" he asked, not wanting to identify the piece of clothing by name. His boxers were not going to become a topic of gossip inside his own diner.

"Yeah, I think I might keep that one for a while," she said looking at him impishly.

Luke bent his arms at the elbows, dropping his head down toward the counter while he absorbed that information. "Geez, Lorelai, you're killing me. Please go out with me. Soon."

"Name the day. I can't wait either," she confided.

"Tonight. No, you have your dinner. Tomorrow?"

"Yes." She smiled. "Tonight if you can stay up until the dinner is over. Tomorrow for sure."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll plan something for tomorrow. Tonight, how about KC's? You come here, Rory will get her usual chili fries, and we'll take her home, then walk over to the tavern. That is, if you're up to it. I know those dinners aren't always easy."

Lorelai couldn't help smiling. Those few seconds were Luke in a nutshell. He planned two dates, feeding Rory, getting her safely home, and still had enough thought left over to worry about Lorelai's relationship with her parents. _How could I have overlooked this amazing guy during these past few years?_

She leaned forward and put her hand on his. "Sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to it."

She paused, sipped on her coffee, then continued. "Do you know any place to buy food around here? I need to eat and go back to work."

Luke slapped his forehead. "Burger and fries, right?" She nodded. "Caesar! Lorelai's usual!"

"Off your game today, Burger Boy?"

"No, just since the last customer came in. She has a tendency to be a little annoying. Today she's more distracting than annoying, though."

"Oh, that's too bad. Maybe she'll improve once you get to know her better, d'ya think?"

"God, I hope so, otherwise I'll go out of business."

"So, KC's has karaoke, doesn't it?" Lorelai tried to imagine Luke drunk enough to sing karaoke. "What would you sing?"

"Nothing. No karaoke. That's why we're going on Friday night, and not Thursday, when Kevin has karaoke evening. What about you?"

She chuckled. "With enough alcohol, I'll sing anything, but the Bangles of course, and Blondie, Metallica, and Bowie." She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out Luke's favorite music. "I'm guessing you're a Jimmy Buffet fan. Is Cheeseburger in Paradise your guilty secret?"

Caesar's "Order up!" saved Luke from a response that would have forced him to confess his wanton youth, maybe even show her his Margaritaville shirt.

"Eat. You have to go back to work, remember?"

After a few more Buffet-head jokes, Lorelai wolfed down her lunch. Before she left her stool, she leaned over and beckoned him to come closer. Luke put his hand down on the counter and she covered it with hers, saying, "If I can light a fire under Michel's ass, I might be able to come by for coffee before we leave for Hartford." Squeezing his hand affectionately, she added, "A little more Luke time would be really good."

"Let me know if you need some rocket fuel," he replied, watching her go out the door.

Lorelai stopped, put her head back inside the door and quipped, "That's what I love about you. You always take care of me, even when it comes to disposing of the bodies." One wink and she was gone, leaving only a smile on Luke's face.

* * *

><p>Rory entered the diner as Luke was finishing a phone call. She took the first stool near the cash register and smiled at him when he noticed she was there.<p>

"Kevin, thanks, I really appreciate the favor. We're good for tonight, then, after the diner closes. See you then." Hanging up, Luke turned to Rory.

"Hi Rory, how was school? Ready for some pie?" He poured her coffee and looked over at the pie election. "Looks like cherry and apple are left."

"Cherry, please. How are you doing? Are you and Mom still fighting? That was kind of weird this morning." Rory sipped her coffee, watching Luke as he cut a piece of pie nearly twice as large as normal.

"Nah, we're good. We called a truce and are gonna go to KC's tonight and have a beer after your dinner is over." He turned and started prepping another pot of coffee.

"That's kind of weird, too, Luke. You guys going out for a beer? I don't remember that happening before."

Feeling uncomfortable about his little white lie about the truce, Luke hedged. "Ah, we've done it before, last year maybe. I can't quite remember when. Your mom thought it would be a nice way to thank me for helping catch Stella."

"Catch Stella? Stella escaped? How did Stella escape?"

_Oh crap oh crap oh crap. I so suck at lying._ "I don't know, Rory. It happened before I got there."

"You came to help move furniture." Rory's puzzled look made Luke even more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, Lorelai wanted to move the furniture. That's it. When I got there, Stella was missing, so I helped find her."

"OK, good. Thanks for finding her. Keeping her alive for a month is really important to my grade." She dug into her pie while her mind tried to calculate how many lies she had been told today. "Great pie, thanks."

Luke looked everywhere except at Rory, fearing that she'd bring Stella up again, but she was done. Rory took another drink of her coffee, then looked up at Luke shyly.

"Luke."

_Oh no, she's gonna call me out on my lying. This is gonna be bad. Lorelai's gonna kill me._

"Yeah?" he said, shifting uncomfortably on his feet, trying at the same time to look nonchalant.

"That was really nice of you to invite Dean for softball."

_Whew._ Luke's tense shoulders relaxed. "It was nothing. We need more players, and one of the high school guys was saying Dean's supposed to be pretty good."

"No, it was nice. Except for school, he hasn't really found his place in Stars Hollow. Being asked to play made him really happy." Her narrowed eyes would have given Luke warning that something else was coming, if he'd been paying attention.

"Ah, it's no big deal. You need to come to the games to root for him, though. We love to have our fans there." _One day, maybe both mother and daughter Gilmore would be rooting for them. _

"Well, even if it wasn't a big deal to you, it made him happy. At least after he stopped thinking you were about to kill him."

Rory's beautiful baby blue eyes and sweet expression turned into one big, stern reprimand. Luke blushed and stammered, "I- I was just kidding around."

"Yes, I know you were kidding. Dean, however, didn't. He was scared, Luke, and he's from Chicago. They have real gangsters in Chicago but you, Luke Danes of Stars Hollow, scared him." Seeing his discomfiture, she turned up the pressure.

"Sorry." Luke had never made Rory angry before.

"That's not going to happen again, is it, Luke?" She shook her head from side to side, as if she needed to help him figure out the right answer.

_Now who's behaving like a gangster?_ "No. Do you need more pie?"

She smiled at him. "Pie is a good way to buy my forgiveness. Apple this time, please."

Luke was plating her pie when Lorelai came into the diner. Rory wheeled on her stool as her mother approached. Luke stood behind her at the counter, glad to have Rory in-between them when Lorelai found out what he had accidentally blabbed.

Lorelai looked at Rory, saying as if she were talking to a stranger, "Would you mind moving? That seat is reserved for me today." She threw a teasing glance at Luke, who rolled his eyes, grateful for the comic relief.

"How did Stella get out?" demanded Rory.

Lorelai looked accusingly at Luke, who put his palms in the air, pretending to be innocent, but Lorelai wasn't buying it. Before she could call him on it, Rory piped up.

"C'mon, Mom, you've been lying like crazy about last night. I want the truth and I want it now."

Lorelai gave a dramatic sigh. "When I got home from the diner, Stella was missing. I called Luke to come help look for her."

"But you hurt him, how did that happen? Were you really throwing things at him?"

"No, I didn't throw anything at him!" _Except myself._ "He fell and broke the lemon lamp (_and then I kissed him!)._ Later he accidentally ran into the coffee table."

Luke chimed in on that one. "I did not run into it accidentally. You pulled me into the table! I've still got the bruise to prove it!"

"Didn't we have that talk this morning, guys? You made up, now play nicely." Rory was beginning to lose patience with them. They were irritating, which was pretty normal for them, but she still felt that something weird was going on. _Somehow they seem, oh, how best to describe it? Frustrated._

"Let's sit over here, Mom, and leave Luke in peace. I'm sure he's got other customers to take care of." They moved to the window, where Rory could keep an eye out for Dean, in case he should walk by.

"Humph. He won't have any customers if he doesn't serve them. I still don't have coffee. Unbelievable. Lu-uke! I need coffee!"

"Keep your pants on," he grumbled as he walked to customers on the opposite side of the room. It took a second longer for him to realize that Lorelai keeping her pants on wasn't something he was really interested in at the moment, more the opposite. When the customer asked if he were alright, Luke simply muttered, "Hot in here," and went back to the kitchen for some relief.

"Give me some of your coffee," Lorelai said as she pulled Rory's cup toward her.

"No! Wait for your own. I'm thirsty." Rory was adamant.

Lorelai pouted, watching the doorway to the kitchen, debating if she should pour some coffee for herself. After all, she was the girlfriend. _Maybe._

Luke finally reappeared, took the fresh pot and a mug and poured Lorelai her coffee. "Made it fresh just for you," he said, speaking more gently this time.

She took the cup, sipped and said, "Mmm, fabulous. Love ya!" Even though she fired the last two words out of her mouth as fast as bullets out of a Kalashnikov, they were not lost on Luke, who studiously avoided looking at her for too long. Too much looking made him forget where he was and what he was doing.

He scanned the diner again. Only two guests were left, each at his own table, and they'd long since eaten and were just relaxing, so Luke took a chance to do the same. He walked over to Lorelai's table and sat down near her, facing Rory. He sighed.

"Long day?" asked Lorelai.

"Felt that way," he answered. "Can't wait for the workday to be over sometimes, to just kick back and relax." Luke purposefully slumped down a little in the chair, his long legs bumping up against Lorelai's. They exchanged a quick glance. Lorelai rubbed one leg slowly against Luke's.

Rory's face lit up as she saw Dean across the street. He waved and came into the diner. When he saw Luke sitting with Rory and Lorelai, he stopped cold.

"Hi," he said nervously.

"Hey," Luke replied. "We couldn't get enough people for a pickup game this weekend; looks like next weekend instead. You up for it?" Luke gestured with his hand to Dean, then casually let it drop to his thigh, giving him access to Lorelai's leg. He began rubbing his knuckles against her thigh.

"Yeah, sure," replied Dean. "Saturday afternoon?" Noticing what was going on under the table, he relaxed a little and smiled. _ So there is something going on there._

"Yeah, about 1.30. We'll pick teams when we get there, but I could use you on my team any time." Rory glowed with pride for both Luke and Dean, that both of these important men in her life could get along so well. Luke had totally redeemed himself in her eyes.

In Lorelai's eyes, Luke was being unredeemably bad. She liked it. Lorelai glowed too, but with something more wanton than pride.

"Thanks. Sounds great." Turning to Rory, Dean asked, "Can I walk you home?"

"Sure, in a few minutes. I want to finish my pie first."

"Luke, while we're sprucing the diner, shall we give your apartment a touch-up as well?" asked Lorelai, intensely aware of the feelings his touch had aroused.

"Nah, the apartment doesn't need anything. I'm good."

"Why don't we take a look anyway, in case something occurs to you that you haven't thought of yet." She pressed hard against his leg, putting pressure on his foot with hers.

Oblivious, he continued to refuse. Only when Lorelai actually reached down and poked him in the leg, asking one last time, "Luke, let's at least take a look. I bet I can find something up there you haven't thought of yet," did he give in to her suggestion.

"OK," he finally grumbled, "just five minutes. Any longer and I'll have to shoot myself."

Lorelai looked at him, wondering how he could have missed all of her signals. Reminding Rory of the need to leave for Hartford by six-fifteen, she and Luke went behind the curtain.

She practically knocked Luke over while pushing him up the stairs. Starting with his shoulders, she moved her hands down to his waist as he began climbing faster. When she lowered her hands to his ass, he got the message.

Once inside the apartment, Luke grabbed her, thrust his hands into her hair and she gasped for breath between his urgent, driving kisses. He pressed her against the wall next to the door, his hands exploring her hot, yielding body.

Eventually they broke apart, trying to regain control. "You don't have time to start this right now." Luke gripped her arms tightly, continuing, "And I'm not going to be able to stop if we go any further."

"OK," she said, "It's just a few hours more. Not very long. We can make it until then, right?" Weak at the knees, she leaned her head against Luke's chest, drawing strength from his hard muscles and comforting embrace.

"God, I hope so. This has been the longest 24 hours of my life," he groaned.

* * *

><p>Dean and Rory left the diner after she finished her pie, walking toward the Crapshack hand-in-hand.<p>

"How long have your mother and Luke been dating?" Dean asked.

"They're not dating. What makes you think that?"

"C'mon. They were playing footsie under the table."

"No way! I would have seen it."

"Sorry, I call it like I see it. It was footsie."

"Well, I still don't believe it. Mom would have said something," Rory said, her doubts increasing nonetheless. She recalled Luke out in the yard last night, and that whole weird thing about their fight. They'd been fighting, she knew that, but dating? _ Impossible._

* * *

><p>Friday night dinner had never seemed as long and drawn-out as it did to Lorelai tonight. Rory was quiet and thoughtful through most of the dinner, reacting politely to questions and chatting with her grandfather about his latest literary acquisitions. Her attention, however, was focused as sharp as a laser on her mother's behavior, but there was nothing to indicate Dean had been correct. Even her leading questions on the way home were smoothly deflected by Lorelai. One niggling doubt remained-what about the fight?<p>

* * *

><p>The diner was closed when the girls returned. Lorelai was teasing Rory heartlessly about her Donna Reed evening as they came through the door.<p>

"Your dress was perfect! But that apron, so adorable. Do want some crinolines for underneath your Chilton skirt?"

"Mom, you're ignoring the most important part! I researched Donna Reed, and while she was acting the role, she had real power in the show. That makes her one of the first female television executives."

"Sure, and that's what you and Dean did all evening, talk about womens' rights in the 1950s. Did you take the apron off? After cooking, you're supposed to take it off, so your sweetie doesn't have to think about all the work you put into his dinner. After dinner, you put it back on to clean up while he sits in his armchair, smokes a pipe and reads the paper. Did Dean smoke a pipe?"

Exasperated and desperate, Rory tried to change the subject. "Why are you guys going to KC's tonight?"

Luke was standing at the counter, making change for the last customer. He looked up suddenly, trying to follow Lorelai's answer.

"Well, um, just because. It's nice to go out and have a beer with a friend sometimes," hedged Lorelai.

Two quick steps across the room and Luke was there, adding, "And your mother promised me a beer for finding Stella. I told you that this afternoon."

_I'm still not buying it._ "Oh, OK. You know, you don't need to drive me home. I can walk," said Rory.

"Luke insists. He doesn't like you going into an empty house all alone late at night."

"Your mom forgot to mention that if I go with you, then I won't have to sit around a bar all evening waiting for her to show up." Lorelai raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"It's still illogical. You two stay here, I drive home and as soon as I walk in the door and don't find any serial killers, I call you. Everybody's safe, and you two can just walk across the street to KC's whenever Luke is ready."

"C'mon, Rory, when has Lorelai ever willingly been logical? It's like a point of pride with her to keep me guessing about her real intent. Drives me crazy." This time Lorelai raised both eyebrows.

Rory chuckled. "Now that's the first true Luke statement I've heard tonight."

Marginally offended that Rory thought he'd been lying all day, Luke decided to not challenge the little godfather, especially since it was the truth.

"My real INTENT?" Lorelai bristled. "You want to know about my real intent?"

"I sure would," mumbled Rory, finishing the last of her fries. "I'm getting in the car and driving home. Why don't you two figure out what you want to do all by yourselves? I'm tired and want to go to bed."

Luke looked exasperated. "I'm going to finish cleaning up." He disappeared into the kitchen.

"Say hi to Dean for me, sweets, and don't stay up too late talking about which one of you is prettiest. Call me when you've killed all the trolls and vampires waiting for you inside the house." Lorelai saw her daughter to the door, flipped the lock after her and then went back to the kitchen to be with Luke.

"Sit over there and don't touch anything," ordered Luke, pointing out a chair at the crew table. "I want to finish up here as soon as possible."

"Soo… that went well," Lorelai posited. This time it was Luke's eyebrow that went up.

"It was a disaster. Rory's been on my case all day. If I'm not lying to her about what we're doing, she's warning me to be nice to Dean."

"But you were nice to Dean today, inviting him to baseball, or softball, or whatever kind of ball it is that you play."

"Slow-pitch softball, but that's not the point. I was kinda, um, not so nice to him last night when I took the lemon lamp outside."

Luke continued cleaning as he told Lorelai the story of the chick, and how scared Dean was when they went behind the house. She laughed delightedly, adding, "It's wonderful how you take care of her in ways that I can't. I threatened Dean once, but he didn't buy it. I like having you on my side."

He walked over to her, held his greasy rubber-gloved hands behind his back and leaned down to kiss her. "Thank you," he said.

"Was that a 'Thank you' like 'thanks for giving me my change' at the store, or a 'Thank you' with a special Luke vibe behind it, like last night when we were choosing paint?"

"There is no Luke vibe, special or otherwise, but yeah, it was the second." He smiled, standing at the sink with an oilcloth apron protecting his clothing from the grease, and his hands in dirty water, Lorelai's heart skipped a beat as he looked at her.

She stood up, wanting to go over to him, when he barked, "What did I say about not moving?!" She dropped her butt back onto the chair and waited.

Lorelai knitted her eyebrows together, trying to deal with a quandary. "I still want to know what you meant when you said 'Thank you' last night, but I get the feeling that when you tell me, I'll want to jump up on you and kiss you until we're both dizzy."

"Then ask later," Luke growled, "and keep your shapely butt in that chair. I am not going to fill out an accident report where the cause of the accident is 'overzealous kissing.'"

"Look but don't touch," she said to herself. "Look but don't touch. Luke but don't touch." She giggled at the joke she made with last sentence.

Inspecting Luke again, Lorelai asked, "Is that the same shirt you wore this afternoon?"

"Nah, I spilled something on it during the dinner rush and had to change it." He pointedly avoided mentioning that he'd also had a shower and tidied up the apartment.

Lorelai's phone clicked, alerting her to an incoming text message. "Ah, good. Rory says she got home fine, had to kill two trolls and stab a vampire with a silver knife, but that's all for tonight." This bit of craziness didn't faze Luke in the least. He just nodded and continued working.

She watched him scrubbing and cleaning the last pots and pans, his arm muscles working in double-time. "You look nice," she said.

"Nice how?" he returned. "My hands are in greasy water up to my elbows, and I'm wearing an apron. Is this another one of those Donna Reed things? I'm not going to wear any pearls."

"Nice like those big strong fishermen I see on TV as they pull the shark over the rail. Yelling and grunting, flexing their big muscles as they lift the giant man-eating fish, hoisting it up on the rope so it hangs head down, still snapping and trying to bite them. Chilling." She smiled devilishly, adding, "The view from behind is spectacular, by the way. And you'd look great in pearls."

Sighing, he poured the last cleaning water out and removed the gloves and apron.

"Well thank goodness I didn't gut any sharks tonight, or I'd have to go shower. Give me five minutes to clean myself up and we can go."


	4. KC's and the Danes History Tour

KC's Henley

Luke bounded up the stairs. This weird day-good weird, not bad weird, but weird nonetheless-was finally over and he had a date with Lorelai that night. Thank God he'd found time after they left for Hartford to go upstairs and take a shower. He couldn't recall the last time he'd changed clothes so many times in one day. It started this morning following his 'walk of shame' from Lorelai's house, then clean clothes after the breakfast rush was over, followed by his evening shower and now the date.

He touched up his scruff at the places that needed a little cleanup. In spite of the scruffy look, which garnered the occasional snide remark, Luke was more careful with his beard than people imagined. It took effort for scruffy to look good._ Leave the soul patch or remove it?_ He left it, remembering that he'd seen Lorelai focused on it more than once.

Luke Danes felt uncomfortable whenever (and it happened too often) anyone talked about him being 'a good-looking man.' While occasionally flattering, most of the attention he got from women was untimely and unwanted. Make no mistake about it-he was a red-blooded, vital American heterosexual male, with all of the wants and desires that came with the territory, but he knew what he wanted, and it wasn't women throwing themselves at his feet.

He scoffed at the idea of love at first sight, but he let his gut feelings about people determine who he was willing to date. If he didn't quickly have a positive gut feeling about a woman, he didn't bother with her. That method worked for Luke Danes, and it worked well. He never lacked for a girlfriend when he wanted one, and that knowledge gave him a quiet confidence in his method, until Lorelai Gilmore ran into his diner and erased his confidence with a flash of her blue eyes like Agent K used his neuralyzer.

* * *

><p>As he pulled his navy blue Henley shirt out of the closet, he let himself hope. That's why he chose the Henley, he knew without vanity it was his best casual look. He hoped the effort wouldn't be lost on Lorelai. No flannel tonight, just the full impact of the Henley.<p>

A splash of aftershave and he was ready to run down his checklist. Hair (no cap tonight), teeth, clean nails, all check. Wallet has enough cash for most events she might drag him to-check. Sliding the wallet into his back pocket, he did his standard pocket slap check: front right, front left, back right, back left-keys and wallet was all he needed tonight.

One last look around the apartment showed that everything was put well-enough away, _oops get that last wet towel hung up_, everything was clean enough. Ready.

He exited the apartment and, turning after he locked the door, he saw Lorelai coming up the stairs. She obviously liked what she saw, until he put up a hand and said, "Stop right there!"

As usual for Lorelai, she didn't stop, so he leapt down the last few stairs between them, meeting her about two-thirds of the way down. Lorelai put her hands on his chest, smiling up through her eyelashes, then lifted one hand to his cheek, fingering his scruff. His hands went automatically to her waist, pulling her closer as she kissed first his cheek, then his soul patch, tugging sweetly on the longer hairs.

Luke answered her kiss, highly aware of the risk he took by doing so. After a moment, he managed the strength to push her back an inch or two. "Lorelai, as much as I want this right now, let's go have that beer first."

She gave in to his request despite not being especially happy about it. "What does it matter anyway?" she pouted.

"When we tell our grandchildren about our first date, I don't want to have to lie to them about never actually making it to the date because we collapsed on the stairs and …"

"I could live with that lie," she said as she smiled impishly. "I remember when I realized that my parents talked about kissing, kissing and more kissing before they married, but what they really meant was pre-marital sex. It scarred me for life."

Luke laughed as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Let's spare the grandkids this one, OK?"

Locking the diner door again after them, they walked to KC's, each with an arm loosely wound around the other's waist, enjoying the privacy that the cover of darkness brought.

KC's Tavern was set off a little from the main drag in Stars Hollow, but it was a nice place on the outside as well as the inside.

"Hey Luke," called Kevin as the couple came through the door. Kevin's eyes grew momentarily large as he saw who accompanied his friend, but he quickly recovered and welcomed Lorelai too. Luke showed her to a corner next to the kitchen entrance. Thanks to an error in construction, there was just enough room to put seating for two; the back of the benches served as a wall hiding them from the rest of the room. No one but the staff passed by there, which made the corner a favorite place for people who wanted to be alone.

"Hmm, cozy. I've never seen this seat before. The couple of times I've been here, it's always been Sookie and I playing truly terrible games of pool. How do you know Kevin?"

"We've been friends since before he opened the tavern, before he met Natalie." He moved in his seat, aware of her closeness. "Lorelai, I don't want to talk about Kevin." He leaned in and kissed her, barely touching her lips at first, then pressing harder as she responded to his invitation.

"Me neither," she said. "I'm just glad to be here with you. Finally," she added.

"Beer? Or something else to drink?"

"Beer is great."

Lorelai watched Luke go over to the bar and chat with Kevin while he pulled the draft beer. At the bar a woman came out from the kitchen and stood next to Kevin. _That must be Kevin's wife Natalie. Wonder why I never met her._ Natalie said a few words to Luke, who looked a little uncomfortable. All at once, Natalie snapped her head towards Lorelai, looking her over. She sank back in her seat, trying to make herself invisible, wishing herself someplace else.

When Luke returned, she asked, "What was that about? I felt like I'd grown an extra head or something."

Luke put his arm around her. "Lorelai, no. Natalie, Kevin's wife, just wanted to know who you were. I haven't ever brought anyone here and they were curious. Kevin's a good friend…he'd never want you to feel uncomfortable here."

"Natalie obviously doesn't feel the same way."

"That's not true. She's never met you, doesn't know you at all. Even if she didn't like you, though, it wouldn't matter to me. Now clink."

"To our date." "Our date." They tapped the bottoms of their glasses and drank.

"Luke, why did you ask me out?"

"After last night, that should be obvious, Lorelai."

"Well, I guess I meant, why didn't you ask me out sooner? We've known each other for years, and …"

"And the whole town says I have a thing for you, right?"

"Right, sorta. I don't care what the town thinks. I care about why, if that's true, you didn't ask me out before."

He looked uncomfortable, and took another draft on his beer. "You sure you don't want to talk about first date things, like favorite movies?"

"This is a perfectly normal first date question."

"But this is not a perfectly normal first date, Lorelai. We went from first gear to warp drive overnight."

She laughed, and moved closer to him, leaning up against his body, resting her hand on his thigh. "Beam me up, Scotty. I'd still like to know, though? Is it me? Did I do something wrong?"

Luke's protective instincts switched on. He couldn't let Lorelai blame herself for his failings.

"It's not that. I'm actually not very good at asking women out."

Lorelai scoffed. "With that body? With your good looks?"

"My 'looks,' as you call them, made it easy to not have to learn how to ask women out. A woman would make it pretty clear that she wouldn't mind going out with me, and that was all the signal I needed." This line of conversation embarrassed Luke, and he felt color rising in his cheeks. It sounded both vain and arrogant at the same time, but it wasn't. He really felt uncomfortable asking women out and hated dating even more.

"Poor Butch. That's what they called you in high school, right? At least, that's what Sookie said. Is that how you met Rachel? How many hearts have you broken?" Her teasing voice belied her real curiosity.

"Lorelai, I really don't want to talk about this anymore. It's in the past anyway, since the woman I'm interested in now never sent me a signal. I guess I'm past my prime."

Lorelai was flustered. She hadn't known of any woman in Luke's life. _What happened last night if he's interested in someone else?_ "Um, I uh, can't imagine that you're past your prime. From where I sit, you're very much still in it. What are you going to do about her?" That question hurt her to ask. Crazy thoughts were swirling in her brain, none of them making any sense.

He looked at her intently, then spoke slowly and deliberately. "What I DID was grasp at a straw. When she called me with an emergency, I ran over as quickly as I could, thinking this was the signal. It wasn't, but we got lucky and managed to get together anyway. Thank God for Stella."

Lorelai's swirling crazy thoughts became a maelstrom of emotion. The crazy thoughts that whispered 'he wanted someone else' gave way to Sookie's 'Jump. Jump now.'

She jumped. "Don't forget to thank God for the lemon lamp and your poor skills at hurdling. If you hadn't been lying there unconscious, I never would have had the courage to take advantage of you." Her witty remark disguised her relief at misunderstanding his earlier statement.

Luke's laughter boomed out, reaching Kevin's ears over the Bono playing on the jukebox. Watching him take Lorelai in his arms and kissing her, Kevin couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his friend so happy. Someone had chosen the Bangles' Eternal Flame for the next jukebox song, probably that group of women playing pool on the far side of the room, judging by their happy reaction.

Watching out of the corner of his eye while opening a half-dozen bottles, he saw Luke and Lorelai move toward the postage stamp Kevin advertised as a dance floor. Luke looked over at Kevin as they walked by hand in hand. He shrugged, a smile on his face, as he allowed Lorelai to lead him to the floor.

Washing glasses was both the most important job in the bar and the most boring. Kevin could wash glasses in his sleep. He happily washed every glass he could get his hands on for the four minutes of the song, because it meant he could watch his friend maneuvering his date around the busy dance floor. Lorelai chattered animatedly through the first minute of the song, letting Luke find their rhythm and pace. Some vague memory popped up in Kevin's mind; didn't Lorelai and Sookie recently see the Bangles in New York? She was probably telling him some story or other about it, if Luke had told him the truth about Lorelai's ability to tell a story that was uniquely funny, lively, and very, very long.

Eventually Luke managed to shut her up, and they moved closer, less dancing than hugging and kissing. He took one of her hands in his and pressed it against his heart, following the lead of the lyrics. Kevin knew what to expect next; he'd seen it a hundred times on his dance floor. He didn't need to know how to read lips to see Luke tell Lorelai that he loved her, nor did he miss her affirmative response. Yes, Luke had it bad, but it was the kind of bad he'd always hoped his friend would find.

As they took their seats again, Lorelai said, "Tell me about your family. How did you settle here in Stars Hollow? Where did your parents live?"

Luke finished his beer and looked at the walls of the bar. "Over this direction is my parents' house," he said, pointing toward the east wall. "My grandparents lived about a block past the Twickham house, which is … hmm. Why don't I show you? Finish your beer and let's go."

They walked over to the bar, where Kevin stood near the cash register. Luke pulled money out of his wallet, but Kevin brushed it aside. "My treat tonight. You've covered for me often enough, especially after Katie was born. I'm in your debt." He pulled out a picture of his daughter to show Lorelai, who oohed and aahed over the very cute infant. Luke stuffed the money into the tip jar, shook Kevin's hand and they went out into the cool air.

He led Lorelai to the diner, where they entered and climbed to the roof. On the way he stopped in at the apartment to take a flannel for Lorelai and a light jacket for himself. Looking over the dark town, Luke was better able to point out former homes of the various relatives on both sides of his parents' family. She shivered as a breeze cut over the roof, and Luke removed his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. Standing behind her, Luke wrapped his arms around her waist, sharing body warmth.

"The Danes empire." Lorelai said.

Luke snorted. "You're standing on the empire. One run-down hardware store. No houses, no yards, not even a driveway. All that out there-just the past."

"OK, the Danes castle. Is there a moat?"

"No moat."

"A tower?"

"Right here beneath our feet."

"Dragons?"

"Yes, dragons. There are dragons everywhere."

"You need me to protect you from these dragons?" she queried, leaning against him, feeling secure in his arms.

_Even in her fantasy world, she has more confidence than anyone else I know._ "Yes," he replied simply.

"I'll have to lock you up in the tower so the dragons can't get to you."

"Will you be there with me?" he countered. Barely whispering, his lips against her ear, he added, "Stay with me tonight."

Lorelai shivered, not from the cold. His low whispered voice was the sexiest sound she'd ever heard.

"What about the coffee? My magic powers need your coffee."

"You've locked me in the tower. How can I make the coffee?" Again the whisper, "Stay."

Her knees began to grow weak, but the thrill of the 'battle' to come gave her the strength she needed to stand her ground.

"Tomorrow, if we're up very early, I think the dragons might still be sleeping. You could sneak past the sleeping dragons and make the coffee then."

"I can see you've battled dragons before. Is 5 a.m. early enough? I have to open the diner."

"I'm pretty sure the dragons sleep in on Saturdays. We'll be safe at 5."

"Let's storm the castle."

* * *

><p>"Do you know what I'd like to do on our date tomorrow?" Lorelai was wide awake and ready to talk.<p>

"Mmm, what." Luke was neither awake nor in a talking mood.

"The Danes Stars Hollow tour."

He rolled over and looked at her briefly, bleary-eyed. "What?" He closed his eyes again, still half-asleep.

"I want to see it all. Where you lived, where you played, your schools, everything."

"Seriously? You don't just want to go see a movie or something?"

"Oh! Let's visit the cabin too. I want to see your private retreat."

She lay beside him, actually almost on top of him in the tiny bed. Her head propped up on her elbow, she looked at his face, eyes closed, still half-asleep.

"There's no point in going back to sleep," she said. "It's five minutes before five."

"Unh. Lorelai, what are you doing? I've never seen you this awake at 9 a.m., much less 5 a.m." He turned his face into the pillow, wishing those last five minutes had been sleeping minutes instead of talking minutes.

"I'm pretty sure my body is thinking 5 a.m. is 'still up' instead of 'waking up.' What about you?" she asked, poking him gently. "You're the 'early delivery' guy, the guy who always has my coffee ready. Why aren't you little Mary Sunshine?"

He opened one eye, then closed it again, blinded by her smile. _There should be a dimmer for that smile at night. _"When have I ever been chipper in the morning? I get up, feed the customers, pour the coffee, take the money. Nowhere does it require service with a smile. And don't poke me. It hurts."

"A little poking is better than falling out of bed. Which I did. Twice." She chuckled. "Poking. Dirty."

The falling out of bed part woke him completely. Luke sat up, turned off the alarm clock and faced Lorelai. "Are you hurt? How did you fall out of bed?" He protectively pulled her close to him, covering them both with the sheet.

She snuggled up against him. "Well, someone rolled over, and since his shoulders are almost as wide as the bed, there suddenly wasn't any room left for me. At least I landed on my softest spot, so no damage was done."

"Oh, God, sorry. I'll take care of it. It won't happen again." _Stop at the furniture store on the way to get supplies this morning._ "Aw, geez, it's past five already. Get dressed, I'll drive you home," he continued.

"You don't have to drive me home, Luke. I can walk."

"Not in that fruity outfit you won't. It screams walk of shame, and I did that yesterday. No need for you to do it as well."

Lorelai reluctantly began dressing.

"Hey Luke," she started, going over to him and wrapping her arms around his waist, rubbing her hands gratefully over the planes of his back.

"Is this something else we're going to have to lie to the grandkids about?" she asked, kissing the nearest convenient spot on his body.

"Nah, probably not. They're only going to be interested in how we got together and what our first date was like. We don't have to tell them how the first date ended."

"But if they ask, I'll tell them, 'we kissed'."

"I don't think they're going to get that far, since the story of how you enticed me to your house will take away every notion they had of you as a sweet little granny. That's how we'll scar them for life."

In a hurry, he shooed her to get dressed while he took care of his personal needs in the bathroom.

On the short drive to Lorelai's house, he asked, "You really want to see all those things? My parents' house? The cabin?"

"Yes, Luke, we talk about these things occasionally, but it makes it more real to see them. I want to see them."

"OK, then, let's see, we probably ought to leave around 4. Is that too early for you? Seems like a weird time for a date."

"Luke, one of these days you won't be able to resist taking me on a date to the batting cages. That will also be early. We can date during the daytime as well as at night. Just relax. Have fun. Remember, we got through the hard part last night. Twice," she finished suggestively.

He pulled the truck up at the edge of the driveway, with the passenger side sheltered by a hedge. Coming around and opening the door for her, she slid to the ground while leaning on his shoulders.

"Do you plan to sleep all day?" he asked, finger-combing her hair with his right hand.

"Probably, unless Rory needs me for something. I might not make it to the diner for a while, which means I'm going to miss your pretty face." She kissed his pretty face, feeling a small thrill as his deep blue eyes smiled into hers. _He looks happy. I like happy Luke._

"Four o'clock at the diner, then? Wear shoes you can walk in," he added, stepping back into his truck. One last kiss through the open window of the driver's side and Lorelai went in to bed.

* * *

><p>"Mom!" Rory flopped hard onto Lorelai's bed. No response. She repeated the flop, saying, "Mom! Wake up!"<p>

"Rory, go away, it's the crack of dawn." Lorelai tried to roll over, but Rory was in her way. She poked her mother. Hard.

"Hey! Stop hurting Mommy!"

"It's not the crack of dawn, it's 8.30 in the morning. I want you to confess your lies so I can study in peace."

"I'm not lying to you. I'm sleeping."

"Sleeping is the only time you haven't been lying to me in the past two days. Now spill. What's going on?"

"Arrgh. Bring me coffee and I'll answer all your questions, you little dragon. Except for the reason why _Gigli_ was ever filmed. I don't have any answers for that."

Lorelai had two glorious minutes of peace before Rory returned.

"Here. Coffee." Rory extended the cup to her mother.

"Why did you lie to me?" she demanded.

"Tell me the lie and I'll tell you the truth," Lorelai sighed.

"Stella. How did she escape?"

"I don't know. I got back from Luke's and she was gone. I looked for her, but couldn't find her, so I called Luke. He came over and helped me find her."

"That was it for Stella? Doesn't seem worth lying about."

"Well, I thought you'd get mad if you knew she'd escaped."

"Why did you fight with Luke? Did you really throw things?"

"No, we didn't fight. It was just an excuse to explain the mess that we made while looking for Stella."

"Oh. OK, I guess. Something seems a bit weird, though. Can't quite place my finger on it." _There was something more there. What was the missing puzzle piece?_

"I'm hungry, Mom, let's go to Luke's and get some pancakes."

"No, I wanna sleep. I'm tired. It's Saturday, my day of rest," Lorelai whined.

Rory grabbed her mother by the foot and started pulling. Lorelai tried holding on to the bedpost, but when Rory threatened, "I'll tickle!" she knew she had to give in. Chasing Rory out of her bedroom, Lorelai took the phone and went into the bathroom, dialing Luke's number.

"Luke's!"

"Hi, it's me. I have to warn you."

"Hey. I thought you planned on sleeping all day."

"I did, but Rory had other ideas. She's insisting that we come over for breakfast, she wants pancakes."

"Did you tell her?"

"Partially. She hasn't figured out you and me yet, but she's close."

"Why don't you just tell her? It takes two seconds to say it. Do you want us to tell her together?"

"No, I'll tell her on the walk over. Be prepared for some fireworks."

"Got it. Chocolate chip pancakes ought to help. See you in a few."

"Mom!" Rory stormed into the bathroom. "You're supposed to be getting ready, not talking on the phone. I'm hungry!"

Lorelai dragged her feet on the way to the diner. Rory stayed a few steps ahead, mumbling to herself, trying to figure out that last vital piece of the puzzle.

"Mom, why did you go for a beer with Luke?"

_Here it is. Time to feel the wrath of Rory._ Lorelai wasn't concerned that Rory wouldn't like her being in a relationship with Luke. She was going to be angry that Lorelai hadn't told her earlier.

"Punkin, we just …" Lorelai didn't get even the first sentence out when the key question occurred to Rory.

"If you and Luke hadn't been fighting, then why did he come to our house on Friday morning? It wasn't even 6.30."

Suddenly Rory turned on her heel and got up in her mother's face. "He didn't COME to our house. He was already there, wasn't he?"

"Yes, I was just trying to tell you about it."

"Why was Luke at our house at 6 in the morning, Mom? Especially after he'd stayed late hunting for Stella and threatening Dean."

"Threatening Dean? He didn't really threaten Dean."

"Forget Dean, Mom. Luke was there because he hadn't left yet, right?" Lorelai nodded. "So Friday night at KC's was …" Rory thought for a second. "A date? Are you dating Luke?"

"Yes! I'm dating Luke!" Lorelai grinned. "And it's great! I love dating Luke, and I'm so glad we can finally talk about it. You are the smartest child in the universe!"

"Finally talk about it? How long has this been going on? Oh my God! Dean was right!"

"Since Thursday evening. Everything went really fast. First we were hunting for Stella, then we were kissing … Wait, what? Dean was right? What was Dean right about?"

"Enough!" barked Rory, taking her mother by the hand. "We need to talk to Luke right now."

Rory dragged Lorelai down the last block until they could see the diner. Luke was standing at the window, looking out for them. He met them on the sidewalk.

"Hey, Rory, your pancakes are ready." Luke stopped cold when he saw her face. Looking over at Lorelai, he asked, "You told her?" Lorelai nodded.

Lorelai turned back to Rory. "Dean was right? Right about what?"

"Last night Dean tried to tell me you two were dating. I didn't believe him." She looked at Luke. "Were you playing footsie with Mom in the diner yesterday?"

Reading the answer on his embarrassed face, she said, "Never mind. Dean was right."

"Did I just hear you say, 'Dean was right?' That's a good thing for my girlfriend to say." Dean had come around the corner and walked over to Rory, putting his arm around her.

"Your breakfast is ready, Rory, let's take this inside. Dean, you, too. Breakfast on the house." Relieved that Rory finally knew, Luke was ready to move on.

He went over to Lorelai, who had been standing there in a sleepy daze. Putting his arm around her, he asked, "Hungry? Or do you want to go home and sleep?"

"Coffee. I don't think Rory's done with us yet."

Fresh chocolate chip pancakes in front of Rory improved her attitude. Getting the truth from her mother and Luke made her downright pleasant. She and Dean enjoyed a couple of moments teasing the older couple, which both embarrassed and relieved Lorelai and Luke.

"When is your next date?" Rory asked, her mouth full of pancakes.

Lorelai, brought closer to normalcy by three cups of coffee and some personal attention from Luke, told her about the Danes history tour, as she had christened the date.

"I wouldn't mind seeing that. Luke, can I come along?" Rory called to Luke as he passed by delivering plates to other customers.

Coming back, he stopped at their table. "You want to go see a bunch of old houses that my family doesn't own anymore? Doesn't sound like much fun to me."

"It's not about the houses, Luke, it's about you. This will help us understand you better, and if you intend to see more of my mother, you'd see that it's a good thing."

"Well, the cabin at the lake is nice. You know, on the way back there's a town that has a gourmet pizza restaurant. Do you want to have dinner afterward?"

"Yoohoo, mother and girlfriend over here. Are you really inviting yourself along on my date with Luke?"

"Turnabout fair play, Mom. I seem to recall you setting up a date with Dean before asking me. The three of us spent a lovely evening watching movies."

Ignoring Lorelai's grumpy face, Rory turned to Dean. "Can you come too?"

Dean shook his head. "I work until 5."

Luke suggested, "We can do the Stars Hollow sights at four, then meet you to drive out to the lake. I know a place to have pizza afterwards. Will that work?"

"Chaperones, just what we needed," grumbled Lorelai.

Dean replied in the affirmative, and the evening was set. Double dates with the Gilmore girls.

* * *

><p>After breakfast Lorelai collapsed on the sofa, trying to get a little more sleep, hoping that the TV playing the Saturday cooking shows would bore her to sleep. Rory had barricaded herself in her room to focus on her math homework. Pulling a quilt over her body, Lorelai soon drifted off to the banter of the Two Fat Ladies.<p>

A couple of hours later, Rory took a break and made fresh coffee. Seeing her mom dead to the world on the sofa, she figured it would be a good place to start her comparative literature assignment, an Elizabeth Gaskell – Jane Austen throwdown. Turning the TV off, she settled on the empty end of the sofa.

One giant coffee and six nineteenth century novels comprised the fortress Rory built for herself. Even though the literature comparison was a trivial task for Rory, who'd read all of these novels several times, it was hard for her to stay on track today. She slid her toes under the quilt, warming them on her sleeping mother's legs as she had done countless times before.

Looking at her mother, worn out by the delights of her new romance, Rory began wondering which Austen character fit best to the story of Lorelai and Luke. Luke was no Darcy; pride was not one of his faults. Neither Bingley nor Frank Churchill fit either. Knightley seemed to be the best choice for him, but could Lorelai fill Emma's shoes?

"Are you Luke's Emma?" she said softly.

"Mmph, Luke," mumbled Lorelai, still deeply asleep. "Love Luke." Lorelai's and Rory's freakish mother-daughter connection was so strong that Lorelai automatically responded to her daughter's questions, even in her sleep. _ Not going to let this chance get away from me._

"How long have you loved Luke?" she asked, to which Lorelai responded simply, "Love Luke."

"Are you going to marry Luke?" Rory probed. "Uneyahs," was her cryptic answer.

"When are you going to marry Luke?"

"Mrgl, gah, Marry Luke."

"But when?"

"As soon as I throw my nosy daughter out of the house," retorted Lorelai, throwing a pillow at her daughter.

"Hey! I'm trying to study here."

"You should have thought of that before you started interrogating me in my sleep." Lorelai stood up, stretched, and headed to the kitchen for some coffee. One cup and two Mallomars later, she settled back onto the sofa, still pleased with her little prank.

"What made it happen with Luke this time, Mom?"

"Aah. This time? What do you mean, this time?"

"Oh, Mom, you know what I mean. Compared to all the other times you've had a moment, or he's flirted with you, or you've flirted with him."

Lorelai fingered up Rory's copy of Emma. _Am I Luke's Emma?_ She hadn't missed a word Rory had said when she thought her mother was asleep, Lorelai had been just too tired to respond with more than grunts and groans.

"Do you remember when Knightley and Emma danced? It feels like that with me and Luke. We come together, then suddenly we're pulled apart again, like Mrs. Kim interrupting us during Sookie's date with Jackson. We start whirling around each other, sometimes we're in sync, sometimes we're far apart and can't even understand each other."

"On Thursday night, it was amazing. It was just the two of us in the diner, and we were really in sync, dancing our dance. He opened up to me, talking about his family. That would have been one of those moments we'd go spinning out of control, but not that night."

Rory was fascinated. "Did you kiss him then?"

"No, I bolted."

"You bolted?! I thought you were in sync, there was the weird dancing?"

"Yeah, I got scared, so I went home."

"What were you scared of?"

"It was all there in his face, in his eyes, everything I wanted. I mean, I _know_ him. I know what it's like to argue with him, laugh with him, spend time with him, we'd done all of those things already. He knows the worst of me, but he was sitting there, next to his father's list, smiling at me. He was offering me everything I wanted, so naturally I ran."

"What's natural about running away from everything you ever wanted? His father's list? What list?"

"Sometimes when you want something really bad, and then you get it, it's hard to accept it, to believe it's really coming true. You think that if you grab it, it will have all been a dream and it just fades away, so rather than face that, I ran away."

"But you're together now. What happened?"

"When I got home and found Stella was missing, I called Luke. It never occurred to me to call anyone else. While we were looking for Stella, we had another moment, but this time, I knew what was waiting for me, so I jumped. It was the point in the dance that we came together again."

"And …?"

"We kissed. Everything after that has been a crazy happy blur. That's why I need a dragon. Do you know which of the porcelain unicorn shops has dragons?"

"Dragons? I think the store at the corner of Pine and Larch has dragons."

"You really do have a freakishly good memory, but that's kinda weird even for you. Let's go, I'll tell you about dragons on the way."

"And the list. Don't forget the list."

* * *

><p>Tom, Andrew and Luke were walking toward the diner when they ran into Dean, getting a coffee on his break from Doose's Market.<p>

"Hey Dean," Luke called. "Got a minute? I could use your help getting something upstairs."

The four men went through the curtain and out the back door of the diner, where Luke's truck stood, his new mattress, box spring and bed frame in the truck bed.

"OK, Tom, you and Andrew guide the fronts, Dean and I will lift the other ends up the stairs." Luke and Tom took the box spring, leaving the mattress to Dean and Andrew. Four pairs of strong arms made it easy work and they got the bed upstairs into Luke's apartment within a couple of minutes. Tom ran downstairs to get the bed frame.

Andrew looked at Luke questioningly. Luke nodded almost imperceptibly, and Andrew turned to Dean.

"You're going to play softball with us?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, looks like it," Dean answered. "Whenever there's another game."

"We kind of have a side group going on with a handful of the players, and we'd like it if you'd join."

Dean looked over at Luke, wondering what was going on. Luke kept himself busy taking his small bed apart and moving it over to a far corner. Tom came back with the metal frame. He and Luke started assembling the frame, keeping their eyes on Dean's reactions.

Andrew continued, a little nervously. "If you don't want to do it, just say so, but I need to get your complete promise of secrecy first. You can't tell anyone-no family, no girlfriend, nobody. OK?"

Dean wasn't thrilled with the promising thing, but since he wasn't otherwise obligated, he agreed.

"Great," said Andrew. "We've got a group that plans little surprises for Taylor. You know, pranks."

"We like to keep him on his toes," added Luke, "and it keeps us from strangling him in a dark alley when he starts his really crazy shit."

"Tom's the idea man, but the coordination all goes through me," explained Andrew. "We'd really like to have you as our inside man in the market. We won't put your job in jeopardy, though. Are you in?"

"Oh yeah, I'm in. Taylor really drives me nuts sometimes. Do we have regular meetings or anything?"

"Nah, nothing regular," said Tom, "we just get together whenever we get a good idea. Sometimes after a game, we have a beer and plan the next prank. Right now we're working on a plan to put false bottoms in all of Taylor's trash cans so he thinks his trash is increasing. Got some kinks to work out there, but we'll figure it out."

The four men shook hands on the deal and went downstairs to the diner. "Coffee's on the house, guys," said Luke. "Thanks for the help with the bed."

After their trip to the unicorn store, Lorelai and Rory arrived at the diner just in time to see the four men coming from behind the curtain. They'd found two tiny dragons, had them gift-wrapped, and they were tucked into a lacy pink paper gift bag along with a card from Lorelai.

Lorelai gave Luke a kiss, asking, "What's with the male bonding? Belch contest? Did you win?"

"No belch contest, although I would have won. I always win the ones after softball games. Something about the exercise, healthy living and the beer."

"Mostly the beer, I'm sure," laughed Lorelai. "You certainly do have skills."

"It's just one of my many hidden talents. The guys were helping me move some stuff."

Dean got his coffee to go, since his break was over, but Rory walked him to the door and gave him a goodbye kiss, adding, "See you after work, then. Meet at the high school?" Dean nodded and ran across the street to Doose's.

Luke was pouring coffee for the girls as Lorelai started in on Stars Hollow's absurdly high number of ceramic unicorn shops.

"The weird thing is, every time I go into one of the shops, they're busy. Where are all of these unicorns going? Are there homes in Stars Hollow where there are thousands of ceramic unicorns, their little beady ceramic eyes following you all around the room? I mean, who even likes ceramic unicorns anyway?" ranted Lorelai.

"Rory likes them," replied Luke as Rory came back to the table.

"Rory likes what?" Rory asked.

"Ceramic unicorns. You sure seemed to like the ones I gave you for your birthday a couple of times." Luke smiled as he remembered Rory's sweet thank-yous for her gifts at birthdays past.

Rory looked from side to side guiltily, then said, a little too animatedly, "Well, of course YOUR unicorns were special, Luke, I'll always treasure them because you gave them to me."

Luke looked at Lorelai, a puzzled look on his face. "Did I just hear someone say she hates ceramic unicorns?"

Lorelai put her hand on Luke's arm and patted it sympathetically. "No, no not at all. She's just saying they're not quite as wonderful as the monogrammed towels you gave her last year."

"She hates the towels too? God, I really suck at buying gifts." He rubbed his hand down his face, trying to wipe this knowledge away. He put his arm on Lorelai's shoulder, leaned over and said, "You probably ought to decide now. Would you rather have lame gifts or no gifts? I can work with it either way, but I don't see a chance of you ever getting good gifts again in your life."

She slapped her totally fake "customer-is-always-right" smile on her face and looked up at Luke with Betty Boop eyes. "I don't think I'd love you as much if you were an expert gift-giver. I'll take the lame gifts any day of the week. As a matter of fact, you might want to start giving me gifts every day. You could use the practice." Rory chuckled.

Her effort garnered a sigh from Luke. "You've got a gift right there," he said, pointing to the pink bag. "Isn't that enough?"

"Not my gift. It's for someone else." Rory and Lorelai looked at each other.

"Good, I hope she likes it, whoever she is." Luke went to the counter to wash his hands and bring out their food as the girls couldn't hold their laughter back any more.

* * *

><p>Promptly at four p.m. the girls rolled into the diner. Caesar let them know that Luke was already upstairs and they should just go up.<p>

Lorelai and Rory knocked before going directly into the apartment. Luke was at the fridge, loading drinks into a cooler.

"Coke or tea, Rory? We'll want something up at the lake." He'd already put beer in the cooler.

"Coke for both Dean and me, thanks, Luke."

He snapped the lid of the cooler closed and, meeting Lorelai halfway across the room, gave her a kiss that was respectable enough for Rory, yet loving enough to make Lorelai feel desired. Rory looked away, but didn't have to resort to catcalls or plead with her mother to stop the PDA. Rory moved to the leather sofa and sat down.

"OK, let me just go take care of my personal needs and I'll be ready to go," he said, walking into the bathroom and closing the door.

"Quick!" Lorelai whispered. "I've got to put these on his nightstand." Lorelai pulled the pink bag with the dragons out and placed it beneath his nightstand.

She stopped and stared. The bed she'd slept in that very morning was gone and a new queen size bed stood in its place.

"Luke! You bought a bed! How did you do that? Weren't you working all day?"

He walked out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel and stood next to her as she surveyed his new sleeping arrangement. He stood a little taller and smiled like the cat that ate the canary.

"I had to go pick up some things in Woodbridge, so I stopped by the furniture store. It only took a few minutes. Try it out," he said as he waved his hand at the mattress.

"Very nice," she said as she bounced up and down on the mattress. Knowing that Rory was out of sight on the sofa, she slid seductively backwards, enticing Luke to join her. He simply reached over the bed, grabbed her feet and pulled her off the bed as she squeaked 'Hey!' in protest.

"Time to go," he said. "Rory, are you ready? What do you want to see first?"

"The list. I want to see the list that Mom talked about. She said that was the most beautiful and special thing in the diner. After the owner, at least," she giggled.

Absorbing Rory's words, Luke looked at Lorelai, his eyes dark with the same emotion she saw the night they sat in front of his father's list. This time, however, the kiss was inevitable.

As they walked down the stairs, Lorelai asked, "Luke, when you said 'Thank you' that night, what did you mean? I hadn't done anything."

He stopped on the stair and waited until their eyes were on the same level. "It was code for 'I love you.' I figured you'd bolt if I told the truth."

"But I bolted anyway," she replied. "I felt the words you didn't say. I'm glad we can both say what we mean, now."

"I love you, Lorelai Gilmore."

"I love you, Lucas Danes."

"I'd love to get past the schmoopy part of the evening. Save it for when you're alone, OK?" interjected Rory.

They showed her the list on the side of the cabinet, _Three hammers, Phillips-head screwdrivers, and three boxes of nails in assorted sizes_. She took it all in as if she were on a tour of Harvard: data, data, data. Rory didn't miss the fact that the two people standing behind her, pointing out the details, were having a very different experience.

Luke and Lorelai stood practically attached at the hips as he recited the words he'd committed to memory a decade ago. Today he read Lorelai's eyes instead. The message in those overpoweringly blue eyes was different from last Thursday's message. It had changed from something he couldn't quite understand to a Morse code. Dit-dah-dit-dit, the shortcut code used for I love you. Seeing the love in her eyes made him so happy that he could no longer detect the sadness he felt when he read those words years ago, just after his father died.

Luke poured two coffees in to-go cups, handed them to the girls and they went outside. Passing by the Jeep, Luke put the cooler inside and Lorelai locked the car. Stars Hollow had exactly one hill, at the top of which was a haunted house. He took them directly up the hill, stopping in front of the decrepit veranda-wrapped house. Only a few windows still had glass, and the porch rail was literally falling apart.

"Looks like this house could use the Luke Danes handyman's magic," Lorelai joked.

"This was my mother's aunt's house thirty years ago. Harry the mayor lives next door, and when we'd come to visit Aunt Ginny, he'd be out in his front yard working. One day when we were visiting, I was about five, I guess, I went over there and started watching him. He was building a wooden fence and he let me help. He sent me back to my aunt's when I dropped the hammer on his toe, though. I learned some new words that day."

"Who owns this house now?" Rory asked.

"I don't know. There must have been a cousin or someone who inherited it, but no one ever told me. It wouldn't be bad if someone would raze the house and put up a new one. Maybe Taylor knows who owns it."

They continued, cutting behind the not-so-haunted house and down the hill on the other side. Luke pushed his way through some overgrowth to reach a creek that was no wider than a trickle. They easily stepped over it and came out on a dirt path behind another neighborhood. They walked eastward along the path.

"This is where we played every day, Andrew, me, Bootsy, and a bunch of other guys. In March the creek would swell to about two feet wide. It was like a river to us when we were just eight years old. We built dams and bridges, had battles, looked for tadpoles and frogs, all those things that kids today rarely get the chance to do. One year we found a snapping turtle. It scared the heck out of us, so we got my dad and he showed us the strength of its jaws by letting it snap onto a stick. He lifted the turtle straight up in the air, with it holding onto the stick the whole time." He held up a branch about two inches thick and demonstrated.

They stopped behind one smaller home, with a large jungle gym in the backyard. Kids were playing on it, screeching and having fun. "That was my parents' home. Dad built the first climber, no more than monkey bars, but the current family has expanded it a lot. They asked for my dad's plans, and I helped them figure out the best way to enlarge the climber. Nice family." He watched the kids playing for a long moment, then pulled Lorelai in for a sideways hug, letting her go again when he continued on the walking path.

They went further, looking at houses, Luke occasionally pointing out the childhood home of a relative or some townie. At one point he stopped, picked up a smaller stick and broke it into pieces as they continued, tossing the bits into the stream. He grew quieter, almost brooding. Lorelai caught up the few steps to him and silently took his hand.

"Run out of words, big guy? We haven't heard you talk this much in a long time. I don't recall you often saying anything about your family," she said after a moment's silent walk. She slid her hand up to the inside of his elbow, which caused him to instinctively bend his arm, giving her hand a place to rest.

Something about the fact that he hadn't told Lorelai these things before bothered her. She felt bad, a little guilty, that she hadn't been a better friend to him, when he had been a good friend to her.

Lorelai's statement bothered Rory too, mainly because she had heard some, maybe most of these stories already. Luke and Rory had many discussions in the diner, and he'd shared many of these stories with her. _Why wouldn't he have shared them with Mom?_

Luke looked off to the side, then back at Lorelai. "What? No. I mean, a tour needs a guide. You wanted a tour, you get the guidance," he said with a lighter tone.

He began again, a little more cautiously. "This path is where I started to love running. After my mother died, I'd come out here to be alone. Sitting didn't help, but running did." Rory came up alongside them and patted Luke's back in sympathy.

"At the other end of the path is the cemetery. I'd run as far as I could the other direction, then turn around and run to the cemetery to visit her grave. I did that almost every day for a good six months. It really helped me work through things. It also made the track team an easy choice when it came to sports. That and baseball, I loved both of those."

They turned onto another well-worn path, leaving the creek behind. After a short distance they reached the sports fields of the high school, where some kids were playing or just hanging out.

"Dean's probably waiting for us in front of the school," Rory said. "It's right at five o'clock." She ran on ahead as Luke and Lorelai took their time, skirting the fields and watching the kids as they went.

Lorelai stopped at a corner of the fence where they could see the baseball game. As they stood watching the kids, she took the chance to apologize.

"I'm sorry, Luke, I feel like you've been a better friend to me than I was to you. Why couldn't you tell me these things before?"

Luke looked at her for a long time, trying to find a reason to cover up a truth that was still raw to his emotions. "Part of the reason is that I'm hard to get to know, and even once someone gets to know me, it's still hard to talk about some things. The other part-can I tell you about that in private some other time, when we're alone?"

Lorelai still felt a barrier was there, something he couldn't bring himself to say, but she cared for him too much to push it, so her hollow-sounding reply was, "Sure, sure. We can talk about it later, no problem." Both of them knew it was a problem.

The baseball game suddenly became fascinating. She watched Luke watch the game, his eyes darting back and forth, knowing the next important thing to look at, coaching the players in his head, softly speaking the next instructions.

"You're amazing," she said. "That comes so natural to you. Did you ever think about coaching?"

"Nah, I don't have patience for kids."

"You have tons of patience for kids, you just don't know many. I've seen you with Rory, so kind. You really treated her well from the first moment you met her."

"Well sure, it would be easier if they were my kids," he said. He looked out at the teams again, trying to put himself in the position of Dad/coach. "That would be fun."

_He doesn't even realize he all but called Rory his kid._

"A couple more kids would be great," she added tentatively. "I think we need to go find the current kids, though. C'mon. You can play baseball again some other time. Will you wear those tight pants for me?"

Both of them feeling smug about having successfully navigated the 'kids talk,' they went looking for the current kids. At the front of the high school, Dean and Rory were nowhere to be seen. A 'Debate Today' sign on the door encouraged Lorelai to look inside.

"We should just wait out here," said Luke.

"Why? The door's open, there are lights on. They could easily be inside." Lorelai knitted her eyebrows together for a moment. "What's in there that you don't want me to see, Luke?"

He looked down, shuffled his feet, trying to find an excuse to stay outside. Lorelai peered into the window of the door again, then called out, "Ha! There they are!" She took Luke's hand, adding, "C'mon, this is the last stop on the Stars Hollow leg of the tour. It can't possibly be that bad."

"Oh yes it can," he mumbled as he acquiesced.

Rory and Dean were looking inside a trophy case. Seeing Lorelai and Luke approaching them, Rory and Dean began grinning. Luke narrowed his eyes, suspecting the worst. Dean began to say something, but Rory elbowed him, whispering, "Let Mom do it. She deserves to discover it for herself."

"I hated high school. Here's my high school. You've seen it. Let's go."

He moved in front of the display cabinet and faced Lorelai, blocking her view.

"Mom, look! Here's a picture of Lane as a cheerleader." Luke breathed a sigh of relief as Lorelai walked to the opposite side of the lobby to see what Rory was pointing to.

"That's not Lane. How could you mistake her for your best friend? On top of that, Lane's the only Korean in Stars Hollow High, and she's not a cheerleader."

"Oh, my mistake, I remember now, she was only thinking of going out for cheerleading. She hasn't tried out yet." Rory looked over at Dean, who winked and took over.

"Hey Luke, is this a picture of you? You were on the baseball team, right?" Dean indicated a display case at the middle of the lobby, on the same side where Luke stood.

Luke's head snapped to that case as Lorelai scurried over to look. "Luke, come here. Is this really you? He's a real cutie. Look at those tight pants!"

Luke stood his ground, saying simply, "That's not me."

"Come here. You can't even see which boy I'm looking at."

He sighed and joined his girlfriend at the display case. "What are you and Dean talking about? This is a picture from 1997. How old do you think I am? I went here in the early eighties."

"Oh, right, I didn't notice. Dean, why didn't you see that?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, my mistake," Dean replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Trying to move things along, Luke said, "We need to go before the sun goes down. We won't be able to enjoy the lake if it's dark."

He took Lorelai by the elbow and started guiding her to the door, making sure he stayed between her and the first display case. Rory and Dean remained a moment more, crestfallen that Luke had outmaneuvered them.

"Luke, you still didn't tell me about your high school days. I thought you were into sports, but I don't see any evidence of that in these display cas …" Turning her head toward him a photo in the first display case caught her eye. "Oh. My. God. Luke, is that you?"

Luke put his hands on his cap and groaned. Dean and Rory joined them at the display case, laughing at their reactions until the tears came.

"Butch Danes, State High Hurdles Champion 1985. Butch? They really called you Butch? Your nickname was so well-known that even the track officials called you Butch? Sookie was right, they really did call you Butch."

"You're going to mock me for the rest of my life, aren't you?"

"Oh, much longer than that. Rory, look at those shorts! And that tank top! How precious!"

"It's not precious, it's what we wore. It was state of the art in 1985."

"More like ready for the 70's disco floor. Didn't leave much to the imagination, did they, Butch?"

"Kill me now."

"You're more biceps than thighs, now, Butch. Was that the baseball influence, swinging those giant bats? Dean, are there any pictures of Butch in his baseball uniform?"

"I'm outta here." Before Dean could find any more incriminating evidence, Luke strode to the door.

Lorelai ran after him, calling, "Oh no, don't walk away, Butch! If I thought you didn't care, I'd just die!"

The mocking continued during the drive to the lake. At one point Luke whined, "Please stop. We're going to my lake cabin. This is my happy place. Please leave me my own little Walden Pond."

At the phrase 'happy place,' laughter erupted again and a whole new round of mocking began.

The lake was far more beautiful than anticipated, and the cabin was far more rustic. Opening the door, Luke became painfully aware of what happens to a modest family cabin when it's used by a single male for over a decade. It was rustic less in the sense of Robert Redford's cabin at the Sundance Film Festival, and more in the sense of crap pile. With a healthy whiff of fish guts.

"You, my friend, have been single far too long," said Lorelai as she watched Rory walk in, sniff the air, turn on her heel and exit immediately.

"Well, it might benefit from a spruce," suggested Luke.

"A spruce won't benefit this place unless it's a spruce tree and it falls flat onto the middle of the roof. That would at least air the place out a little."

"Hey, I thought you liked the 'Luke' scent," he said. "At least that's what you said last night," he added, pulling her to him.

"This is not the 'Luke' scent, this is Moby Dick swallows Luke whole, barfs him out again, then dies and rots under the porch. We need to deep-clean this place."

He winced under the truth of her observations. "You know, this whole 'get-to-know-Luke' tour thing isn't really working out very well for me. And it's a terrible first date."

Rankled, Lorelai looked at him. "How in the world do you think we're ever going to figure out what our 'first date' was? We see each other every day, we've done a million things together, had countless 'moments' which might have shown us our love for each other, and we argue like an old married couple. I think the first date ship sailed a long time ago and we ought to just skip trying to label our dates."

"Tell you what," she continued, "Let's go outside, enjoy the lake and some of that beer and leave the cabin for some other time." She pulled his face to hers for a kiss, but broke it off quickly. "Tastes a little like fish. Let's get some fresh air."

After showing Rory and Dean a path around the tiny lake, Luke and Lorelai settled on a pebbled beach with their beers. He tossed a waterproof pad on the ground for Lorelai and chose a low boulder for himself.

"It really is a beautiful place, Luke, I envy you that you had this your whole life. We always bounced around from rental to rental in the summers, and it always had to be the right place. Fun was never as important as social climbing."

"It was fun. As much as I love fishing, it was more fun as a family. Most of the time Dad and I would fish, but Mom always had plans and there was plenty to do. I'd also spend time searching out the right branches and whittling, or I'd take Liz exploring."

"You'll have a chance for that fun again," said Lorelai. "Once we get the cabin up to snuff, Rory can have parties here, or we can spend weekends when you can get away from work. It can be as busy and full as you like. Just say the word, I'm here for you."

Luke blinked hard several times as he stared across the lake. Rory and Dean could be seen winding their way on the path. Lorelai watched as Dean took a picture of Rory with the digital camera borrowed from his father. They'd finish their walk around the lake within half an hour.

"Lorelai, there are two things in my life that I've loved. My family, and … you. I couldn't share stories about my family with you because I didn't trust myself. The line between loving them and loving you isn't always clear to me. If I started talking to you about them, I thought I wouldn't be able to resist telling you how I felt, and that scared me." He paused to take a drink of his beer and catch his breath.

"I hate making a big deal out of the words 'I love you.' Growing up, we said it all the time, in the small moments. We were comfortable with each other, really connected. I'd be reading Liz a book and Mom would come by, sit for a minute, smooth my hair and tell us she loved us. When I'd run through the kitchen, going outside to play baseball, I loved grabbing Mom and hugging her and telling her I loved her. Dad and Mom would sit together in the evening, and whoever felt it would just say it whenever, for no reason other than they were happy and wanted to say it."

"When I was thirteen, I thought I felt that comfortable with Carol Ann, my first girlfriend. One day we were just hanging out, and I let it slip. She bolted."

Luke drew her into a close hug, looking past her across the lake, his chin resting on the top of her head. "The last week Dad was in the hospital, I was sitting beside his bed as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point he looked at me, and I said it. He smiled."

"Lorelai, the only person outside of my family that I ever truly felt that connected and comfortable with was you. My dream is to have that same love with my own family, with you. I didn't want you to bolt, so I did everything in my power to not scare you by letting it slip again."

Lorelai knelt beside him, placing her hands on his thigh. Taking his chin in one hand, she pressed her lips against his in a loving, careful kiss. She squeezed his free hand and held it.

She whispered, "That's where our moment came from last Thursday. You were talking about your father, then suddenly I saw so much more in your eyes. You slipped, but at just the right time."

He nodded. He gripped her hand tightly.

"Oh Luke." Scooting him over so she could join him on the boulder, she lifted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder. As she pressed her body against his, he could feel her strength and confidence flowing to him.

"It scares me how far we've come in just two days," he continued. "After so many years, to have everything I dreamed of. I can hardly breathe when I think of how happy I am, and how scared I am of screwing something up and destroying what we have."

"Me too. There's only one thing I'm even more scared of, and that's not trying. We can run away from what we have, or we can work to make sure we succeed. I want us to succeed." Lorelai didn't have the crazy confidence she usually had when starting something new, but she still had enough to move forward in spite of their shared fears.

Both grateful and surprised at Lorelai's ability to turn fear into determination, Luke jumped on her suggestion. "I want us to succeed too. We'll figure it out together?"

"Together," she agreed. Relieved, Lorelai's confidence in their relationship and her hopes for the future began to grow.

"Do you have any idea what we have to figure out first?" Luke was always more comfortable when his spontaneity came with a plan.

"Nope."

"Me neither."

"Maybe we should start with dinner. Here come Rory and Dean."

Luke laughed. "Dinner sounds like a good place to start anything with a Gilmore girl. I'll lock up the cabin and meet you at the car, OK?"

"The way to a Gilmore girl's heart is through her stomach," she smiled, holding her lips against the back of his hand.

"Problem is, no one's ever actually survived that journey," he countered, pressing his mouth against hers, his kisses drinking in more of confidence she now had in abundance.

By the time everyone was settled with orders and drinks at the pizzeria, the lake cabin project had been fully planned by Lorelai and Rory. Luke nursed his water with lemon, listening with satisfaction as they chattered on with ideas and plans.

The cabin definitely needed work, which quickly became a project that Rory and Dean volunteered for as soon as school was out. They discussed picnics and afternoons at the lake in the summer, while Lorelai and Luke debated what had to be done so several people could stay there at once.

"I declare the Danes Tour a success, said Lorelai, toasting the group with her wine. "It was a very good day."

"It's my turn now," Luke said, "When is my Gilmore Tour?"

Lorelai froze, then looked at Rory. Neither of them had considered this.

"A Gilmore tour? What could you possibly expect to see?" asked Lorelai. "It's just snobs sitting in Hartford, doing snobby things." The thought of showing Luke her Hartford past was daunting.

"Actually, Mom, there's a little history. I just started a project for school about our family's history. I'm doing the research now, later I have to make a family tree with pictures."

"There's also your history in Stars Hollow. You've lived here what, 14-15 years now?" added Luke.

"But you hate big cities. Hartford is a big city. I can't subject you to that torture," Lorelai rationalized.

"I'll survive. Rory, would you do me a favor and set it up? Clearly your mother is going to do everything she can to keep this from happening."

"I'm just thinking of you, Luke. It could scar you for life. Really, this is a bad idea." Lorelai sensed that her fast-paced chatter technique was not going to get her out of this.

"Got it, Luke. Dean, you want to come too?" asked Rory.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he chuckled, looking at Lorelai's discomfiture.

Dean dragged Rory to the salad bar, Lorelai took a sip of her wine and spoke in low tones to Luke, who was sitting next to her on the padded bench seat.

"Changing the lake cabin and a Gilmore tour-that's a lot of change for an easy-going guy like you, Luke. We're kind of taking over your life here," she said, rubbing his thigh. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Ready for love, a family and happiness? Duh, can I get back to you on that?" He stretched his arm out and lay it across the back of their seat, letting his hand lightly touch Lorelai's shoulder. "Lorelai, I'm not expecting some fantasy family. I know you and Rory, we've all fought and argued before. My sister is a basket case as a mother and a sister. You have stories of your parents that would make a therapist cry. We have just as good a chance at making it as most people. Of course I'm not ready for what's going to happen, nobody ever is. You aren't ready either. We just take it as it comes."

"OK, OK, Luke, no need for a full-on rant. We talked this out this afternoon already. I was really just asking if I should dial the kids' plans back a little. "

"Oh. In that case, no. I can handle it." He paused, thoughtful. "Look at it this way, we get the cabin cleaned up for free, and I get to know you better."

"Parenting lesson number one, my friend – nothing ever comes for free with kids. You'll find that out soon enough. And the Gilmore history tour may be one of the worst things that ever happen to you."

"You mean ever happen to YOU, don't you? Look, I got through today; you can handle it when it's your turn."

"I see dead people…" said Lorelai in a spooky voice.

"We're doing it. End of story."

Rory and Dean returned with salad for Dean and a bowl of grape tomatoes for Rory. At the same time, the waiter brought the individual pizzas.

Lorelai stared at Luke's pizza as he started to cut into it. "You're not going to send that back?"

"Why would I send it back?"

"Someone spilled a salad on it."

Luke chuckled. "No they didn't. That's the arugula. They make the pizza, and after it comes out of the oven they add the arugula lettuce."

"Seems like a waste of a perfectly good pizza to me."

"Here, try a bite." He carefully prepared a fork with the pancetta, goat cheese and arugula lettuce. Lorelai, looking doubtful, tried it.

"Hey, it's actually pretty good." She took a couple of pieces of the lettuce and added it to her own sausage pizza. "Not as good as yours, but not too bad. Next time I'm having yours."

"Good, I'll remind you." He smacked her hand lightly as she reached in for more. "Next time. I'm hungry tonight."

"Hey Luke," Dean said, "Did you get that bed set up all right?"

"Yeah, it didn't take very long. The twin bed I got completely apart as well."

"What color sheets did you buy?" asked Lorelai.

"Sheets? Man, I forgot the sheets!"

"It's a queen size bed, isn't it? I've got plenty of queen size sheets if you want to pick them up tonight."

"Sounds good. I can stop by before I go home." Luke was feeling tired from the last two crazy nights and the emotional depths of the day.

After paying for the meal, Lorelai asked, "Who wants to drive? I've had too much wine to drive."

Dean spoke up quickly. "Is it OK if I drive? I've wanted to drive your Jeep for a while now."

"Works for me," said Luke. "I'm pretty wiped."

Luke was asleep almost as soon as they reached the highway. Lorelai and Rory, sitting in the back, watched as he struggled to stay awake, his head falling to his chest several times before Lorelai reached forward and reclined the back of his seat for him. They drove the rest of the way in relative silence, their full tummies and busy days making them all a little tired.

At the Crapshack, Lorelai tried to wake Luke, but barely got him to acknowledge her. Asking Rory to stay with him for a minute, she ran upstairs and got some sheets for his bed. By the time she got back outside, he was standing outside the Jeep, sluggish but awake.

"Want me to drive you home?" she asked.

"No, the walk will do me good. Thanks for the sheets." He pulled her close but ended up leaning on her more than masterfully embracing her.

She smiled, wrapped her arms around him, saying "Poor baby. You need to get some sleep. Call me when you're safely at home in bed, OK?"

"Lorelai, I can get home by myself. Been doing it for years. I don't need anyone checking up on me."

"Maybe I'm the one who needs to check up on you. Make sure there were no dragons on the way home."

He sighed. "All right. If I promise to call, can I please go home?"

"Yes, sleepyhead. I'll see you tomorrow, right?" She kissed him as he nodded, rubbing his temple. "Goodnight, Luke."

* * *

><p><em>NO. This is not acceptable. I refuse to feel this way. I am not going to be one of those girls. No, no, no, no way.<em>

Lorelai sat on the sofa with the phone in her hand after Luke left.

_It's not been even ten minutes since he left. I am not going to sit around and worry that he might not call. For God's sake, Gilmore, he was exhausted. He probably fell asleep on the unmade bed. I'll just do something else for a few minutes, then I'll go to bed, too, and I'll see him tomorrow._

She looked around the room.

_What to do? Cleaning? Not hardly. I'll get ready for bed._

Getting ready for bed took a grand total of 4 minutes, timed by too-frequent looks at the alarm clock. Just before she was about to admit to herself that she was one of those girls who waits for her boyfriend to call, the phone rang.

"Hey." He still sounded sleepy.

"Hey. How did those sheets work out?"_ Why did I not hear the sexy in his voice years ago?_

"Fine. They're on the bed, and I'm in bed. They're sheets."

"I have some Hello Kitty sheets if you'd prefer."

"I like trucks. Got any trucks?"

"Sorry, no trucks. Did you run into any dragons?"

"No dragons."

"Are you sure? Maybe some dragons hiding under your nightstand?"

Luke flipped the light on and looked over the side of the bed. There, underneath his nightstand, was the pink lacy bag he'd seen that afternoon in the diner.

"Hey, isn't that the gift for your girlfriend?" he asked.

"Nope, you're the friend, and you're definitely not a girl. It's for you."

"Ah. There are dragons here, and a note. _Just in case real dragons aren't available when you need rescuing._"

"Yes, do you need rescuing?"

"Not tonight, they look like they're sleeping, like I need to be. I think we'll be safe until tomorrow. You'll come by to check to make sure I'm safe tomorrow?"

"You bet. Make sure the coffee is ready to restore my magic powers. Goodnight Luke."

"Goodnight Lorelai."


End file.
